GERRIT SMITH 



The Story of a Noble Man s L 



BY 



CHARLES A. HAMMOND 



All rights reserved by the author 



GENEVA, N. Y. 
PRESS OF W. F. HUMPHREY 
I9OO 



E4-15 
1 t\2 



..:: : : y. 



GERRIT SMITH 



CHAPTER I 

"His life was gentle, and the elements 
So mixed in him that nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'" 

In this and the few following chapters the writer proposes to 
give such a sketch of the life, character and influence of a very- 
remarkable and justly distinguished citizen of Central New 
York as may, he hopes, awaken renewed interest in the study 
and emulation of the character of one of the noblest and man- 
liest of men. A modern writer says the education of a child 
must begin two hundred years before it is born. Heredity, 
doubtless, has very much to do in forming character. Gerrit 
Smith was fortunate in having a good ancestry. His mother 
was a member of the Livingston family, distinguished in the 
early history of the State of New York, she being a second 
cousin of Chancellor Livingston. Peter Smith, the father of 
Gerrit Smith, was himself a remarkable man. His ancestors 
came to this country from Holland at an early period, and his 
father lived on the farm near Tappan, N. Y., on which John 
Andre was executed as a spy. Peter Smith was about twelve 
years old at the time of that historic tragedy. At the age of 
sixteen he became clerk in the store of an importing merchant 
in the city of New York, and while there became interested in 
theatres and himself developed considerable capacity as an 
actor. He afterward formed a partnership in business with the 
celebrated John Jacob Astor, whom Washington Irving has 
immortalized in ' ' Astoria ' ' and who was the ancestor of 
the Astor family of this generation. Mr. Astor and Peter 



4 

Smith were both at that time poor young men with their 
own fortunes to make. They started a little store and 
dealt in furs, which they procured direct from the Indian 
hunters of the North. In summer they would go to Albany, 
by sloop, thence on foot into the interior of the State, then 
almost a wilderness, and mostly inhabited by the savage tribes, 
and, climbing mountains, wading or swimming rivers, visited 
the Mohawks, the Oneidas, Cayugas, Senecas, and other tribes, 
who held till summer the spoils of their winter's hunt which 
they were ready to exchange for cheap trinkets, beads, shells, 
bits of glass and other articles, costing little to the traders but 
dear to savage eyes. Astor and Smith so won the good will of 
these simple sons of the forest that they not only obtained furs 
of great value very cheaply, but secured the services of their 
Indian friends to transport the furs by canoe and on their backs 
to Alban}?-, whence they were shipped down the Hudson to New 
York. Those who have read Irving's " Astoria" will remem- 
ber the wonderful breadth of mind and general capacity for 
affairs and the management of men shown by Mr. Astor; and 
his partner, Peter Smith, also proved to be a very shrewd and 
successful man of business. Astoria, on the Pacific coast, as 
well as the Astor library in New York are monuments to Mr. 
Astor, but the life, character and influence of Gerrit Smith are 
more valuable reminders of Peter Smith. 

After the partnership had continued for some time, Peter 
Smith removed to Utica and opened an Indian trader's store in 
a part of his house, sending the furs thus obtained to his 
partner in New York. Mr. Astor bought land on which large 
portions of New York city now stands, thus becoming 
immensely rich, and Peter Smith bought lands " up the State." 
The partnership was dissolved but the friendship of the parties 
remained, and Gerrit Smith afterwards derived signal advantage 
in a crisis of his career from this friendship, continued to the 



5 

son. Many thousands of acres in the interior of the State 
became the property of Peter Smith. It is said that at one time 
he owned more land in New York State than any other person, 
not only acquiring the Indian titles, such as they were, but 
deeds from the State as well. He owned large tracts of land in 
Oneida and Madison counties, and removed from Utica to 
Whitesboro in 1802 and in 1806 to Peterboro village, town of 
Smithfield, in Madison county, both town and village being 
named after himself. He became County Judge of Madison 
county and was easily its leading citizen. 

PETER SMITH AND THE INDIANS. 

His friendship with the Indian chief of the Oneida tribe was 
such that he named his eldest son " Peter Skenandoah," after 
himself and the chief, and his influence over the red men was 
so unbounded that at one time the United States government 
sent an agent to investigate what was feared to be a dangerous 
ascendancy, but the agent reported no danger, as Peter Smith 
was a patriotic man and a friend of the government. But the 
Indians made themselves very much at home in the mansion of 
Judge Smith at Peterboro, camped in the halls and outhouses 
and lay loose about the piazza, not always desirable, but still 
useful visitors. 

Peter Smith had married in 1792 Elizabeth, daughter of 
James Livingston of Montgomery county, N. Y. Her father 
was a graduate of Columbia College, N. Y., having been born in 
New York, his ancestor, Robert Livingston, coming to this 
country in 1674. But James practiced his profession as a law- 
yer in Montreal, Canada, and his daughter, the mother of 
Gerrit Smith, was born there. When the war of the revolution 
broke out, however, he fled to the United States with three 
hundred men and joined the American army. He was Colonel 
of a New York regiment, fought against Sir William Johnson at 



6 



Johnstown and assisted Montgomery and Arnold in the assault 
on Quebec, leading the attack on Fort Diamond. He was also 
at the head of his regiment at the capture of General Burgoyne 
at Saratoga. Gerrit Smith's mother was worthy such a son and 
her children cherished an affectionate regard for her memory. 

Peter Smith's first wife died in 1818 and two or three years 
later he married a lady of English birth living in Charleston, 
S. C. This marriage was not a happy one and the second wife 
separated from her husband and returned to Charleston, where, 
at an advanced age, she died, after the close of the Civil War. 

Peter Smith was a very devout and religious man in his way. 
He devoted much time and money to publishing and circulating 
religious tracts and books, written after the manner of those 
times. His diary shows him lamenting his sinfulness, seeking 
mercy through the atonement of Christ and striving to live 
according to his ideas of religion, a godly life, but his concep- 
tion of the nature and requirements of true religion was evi- 
dently quite different from that which, in later years, made his 
distinguished son such a power for good in the world. He was 
regarded by those who had only a casual acquaintance with him 
as a somewhat "hard, sharp, shrewd man, close at a bargain, 
selfish and grasping, too much occupied with himself to make 
others happy or to be genial in intercourse. He was heavy in 
build, but not tall, with large eyes which had in them a gleam 
ofwildness, which was at times almost fierce." Yet he was a 
man sensitive and quick in his feelings and his diary shows him 
to have had a sense of justice and a kind heart, but his ideas of 
the rewards and punishments ordered by Providence pertained 
very largely to another state of existence, and not to the present 
world. Preparation for that world, in his view, was a matter of 
belief in certain dogmas and being in certain frames of mind, 
also in complying with certain observances. 



7 



GERRIT SMITH'S BIRTH. 

Gerrit Smith was born in Utica, March 6th, 1797, and came 
to Peterboro in 1806. At the age of sixteen he went to Clinton, 
Oneida county, to attend the academy, afterwards entering 
Hamilton College, at the same place ; and was graduated with 
honors, delivering the valedictory address in August, 18 18. 
His mother died the day after his graduation. 

While in college he was a fine scholar, not a recluse, full of 
life and mirth and good fellowship, but industrious, painstaking 
and faithful, an omniverous reader, eagerly devouring the best 
literature of the period, in prose and poetry, and keeping 
abreast of the thought and progress of the age in which he 
lived, as well as fond of the classics of past ages. The letters 
of Junius, among other celebrated writings, found in him an 
interested and appreciative reader. He was hospitable in his 
literary tastes and always enthusiastically in sympathy with all 
generous sentiment. 

Gerrit Smith was a very handsome man, even in his youth ; 
his manners open and cordial and he made friends of all with 
whom he associated. He took an active part in all games, 
entertainments and collegiate amusements, was gay and sport- 
ive, never vicious nor in the vulgar sense "wild." Yes, he 
had one vice. He gambled. It must be confessed, for he him- 
self confessed with shame and contrition, he belonged to a card- 
playing club and played cards for stakes, and sometimes on 
Sunday. His nick-name among his card-playing friends was 
■ ' Old Mariner, ' ' probably on account of his skilful handling of 
the bits of pasteboard. On one occasion, while in the middle of 
a game the tutor rapped on the door. All the others fled out of 
a rear door, but Gerrit Smith threw himself face downwards on 
the floor behind a desk. The tutor saw the prostrate form and 
demanded "Who is it? " "Gerrit Smith, sir," replied the stu- 



8 



dent. " What are you about ? " <f Meditating, sir." Express- 
ing gratification that the young man was so profitably employed 
the tutor retired. 

The fly leaf of a copy of Byron's " Siege of Corinth," given 
him by a college friend about this time contained the following, 
" to his sincere, affectionate, sentimental, poetic, ambitious, 
superior-minded, noble, generous, honest, honorable, jealous, 
deceitful, hoaxing, partial, epicurean, gambling, Smith as a 
token of esteem. Hamilton college, July 23rd, 1816." Gerrit 
Smith had not at that time " professed religion," as the phrase 
is, and being the son of a rich man, was freely supplied with 
money, which he spent freely, but not as was said by his mates, 
in hurtful dissipations of any kind, with the single exception 
referred to. His impaired health in later years, which was the 
cause of much pain and uneasiness and seriously interfered 
with his plans, could not have been the result of " sowing wild 
oats " in his youth. He detested meanness, selfishness and 
injustice and always sympathized with the weak and oppressed, 
against the oppressor, even in those early days before his char- 
acter was fully formed. He intended, while in college, to enter 
the profession of the law and devote his life to that calling, but 
events gave another turn to his career. Many years after, it is 
true, he was admitted to the bar but never practiced law for 
money, solely for benevolent purposes. 

AFFECTED BY HIS MOTHER S DEATH. 

The death of his mother, following so quickly after his gradua- 
tion seems to have produced a decisive effect on his whole after life. 
Forty-one years afterwards, conversing with the writer of this 
sketch, whose own mother had recently died, he said, with much 
feeling, " The death of a man's mother is an epoch in his life," 
and then told me of his mother's death and its effect upon him. 

From that time he was a changed man. The lightness and 



9 

frivolity of youth were gone, and he grappled earnestly and 
manfully with the stern problems of a manly life. After his 
mother's death his father became melancholy and disinclined to 
business, and in October, 1819, turned over to Gerrit Smith, in 
whom he reposed wonderful confidence, the bulk of his prop- 
erty, valued at about $400,000, on condition that his debts, 
amounting to about $75,000 should be paid, that he should him- 
self receive the income of $125,000, and that half of the 
remainder should be divided equally among the children of his 
other son, and the children of his daughter. The father then 
left the family mansion at Peterboro, and in 1825 went to live in 
Schenectady, where previous to his death in 1837, he accumu- 
lated another fortune and died leaving $800,000 to be divided 
among his children and grandchildren, Gerrit Smith sharing 
with the rest. John Cochrane of New York city, at one time 
Attorney General of the State of New York, after the war, was 
a son of the sister of Gerrit Smith ; and it seems that Mr. 
Smith exercised some supervision over his education, as I heard 
him say, in a campaign speech when John was a candidate, " I 
know he was well brought up, for I brought him up myself." 

On January nth, 1819, Gerrit Smith married Wealthy Ann, 
only daughter of the Rev. Dr. Azel Backus, the first president 
of Hamilton College. President Backus had died two years 
before Mr. Smith's graduation, but his only daughter was one 
of the prizes Gerrit Smith won at Hamilton College. But alas ! 
for the vanity of human hopes ! The young and accomplished 
bride died of dropsy of the brain in August following, only 
seven months after her marriage, leaving her husband again a 
mourner less than a year after the death of his mother. In 
January, 1822, he married Ann Carroll Fitzhugh of Livingston 
county, N. Y., who was born in Maryland, the Fitzhughs being 
related to the Generals Robert K. Lee and Fitzhugh Lee. In 
November, 1819, while yet a widower, he had commenced 



IO 

house-keeping in the family mansion at Peterboro. His 
mother-in-law, Mrs. Backus, and her son, Robert, then a clerk 
in Mr. Smith's office, were then members of his family ; also 
Miss Iyaura Bosworth, a trusted employe, who remained in his 
family more than twenty years, and whom the writer well knew 
as a dear friend of Mr. Smith's family many years afterwards. 

Thus early in life began his great responsibilities in the midst 
of overwhelming sorrows. But he proved himself able to bear 
his troubles with manly fortitude and to discharge all his duties 
with honor to himself and fidelity to all concerned. His vast 
business prevented his becoming a practising lawyer. Few men 
at the age of twenty-one years could have managed successfully 
such a vast estate. But he soon became one of the ablest and 
most successful financiers in the State or nation. He confined 
himself to his work and threw into it his great powers. He had 
not the same passion to acquire land as his father, but in early 
life he made vast purchases and showed remarkable tact and 
foresight in his selections. Six thousand acres of land bought 
by him in Michigan at $6 per acre and held ten years brought 
$32 an acre. Of course, taxes were to be paid for ten years, 
but still the profit was very large. This deal was on behalf of 
William Backus, a nephew of his first wife. 

While still very young, he bought eighteen thousand acres of 
land in Florence, Oneida county, N. Y. In 1827, he bought of 
the State a large part of the land on which the city of Oswego 
now stands. Oswego was then a village of seven or eight hun- 
dred people, but the completion ol the Welland and Oswego 
canals about that time indicated what afterwards became a fact, 
and Oswego was long since a flourishing port of entry, with its 
custom house and lucrative business. Gerrit Smith paid 
$14,000 for his Oswego purchase, and a few years later it was 
worth half a million. Of course, he invested much more money 
in improvements and additional purchases, and then commenced 
selling lots at moderate rates and on easy terms to purchasers. 



CHAPTER II. 



The great financial crash of 1837 caused Gerrit Smith great 
embarrassment. Much of the property he had sold was unpaid 
for, the stringency of the times made collections impracticable 
and the land came back on his hands, with an accumulation of 
unpaid taxes to be looked after, in addition to the interest con- 
stantly accruing on his enormous indebtedness. Many men 
went into bankruptcy. In that year he had taken, in part pay- 
ment of a debt of $175,000 owed him by a relative, an interest 
in the steamboat St. Lawrence, not a valuable piece of property, 
and the cause of much annoyance to its new owner. The vil- 
lage of Sacketts Harbor was nearly destroyed by fire soon after 
the steamboat had left its port, and an owner of burned prop- 
erty, claiming that the fire caught from the steamer, sued Ger- 
rit Smith, with the other owners, for damages. With all these 
financial troubles upon him, his counsel, to whom he had 
intrusted his defense in the suit, advised an assignment of his 
property for the benefit of creditors. But Gerrit Smith was a 
man of great courage and of great resources. The suit against 
him miserably failed. He resolved to make an effort to raise a 
very large amount of money, for in no other way could he keep 
his head above water in those terrible times. 

His indebtedness then amounted to more than $600,000, much 
of his obligations being due the State, and he needed a full 
quarter of a million dollars to pay interest and taxes and to tide 
him over the crisis in money matters. He resolved to apply to 
his friend and his father's friend, John Jacob Astor of New 
York city, and made known his wishes by letter. Mr. Astor 
replied, inviting his young friend to dine with him, and the 
invitation was accepted. After the cloth was removed and the 



12 



men were alone, the visitor stated his difficulties. It was a time 
of panic, banks had suspended specie payment and could give 
little relief, business was at a standstill, land was unsalable and 
unproductive, and the legal adviser and brother-in-law of Peter 
Smith, who was the son's counsel, had advised an assignment. 
" How much do you need?" asked Mr. Astor. 

" Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars," was the answer. 

" Do you need it all at once?" 

"I do," said the guest. 

Mr. Astor looked grave, but after a moment's thought 
responded, " You shall have it." 

Mr. Smith returned home and in a few days the check of 
Mr. Astor came, and the following entry in his journal showed 
his appreciation of the favor: ''August ioth, 1837 — I this 
week received a letter from my friend and my father's friend, 
John Jacob Astor, in which he consents to loan me for a long 
period the large sum of money which I had applied for to him. 
This money will enable me to rid myself of pecuniary 
embarrassments, and to extend important assistance to others, 
and especially to extend indulgence to those who owe me. 
This is a great mercy of God to me. It relieves my mind of a 
great burden of anxiety. My pecuniary embarrassments grow- 
ing out of my liabilities for , and out of my liabilities and 

advances to , have often, and for hours together, filled me 

with painful concern." No security had yet been given ; a 
quarter of a million dollars had been loaned trusting the 
integrity of Gerrit Smith, but in due time mortgages were 
executed on the Oswego property, duly acknowledged and 
recorded in the County Clerk's office, and after some time 
forwarded to Mr. Astor at New York, the shrewd and 
successful financier safely trusting all the details to his debtor, 
and his confidence was amply justified and the enormous loan 
paid to the uttermost, with interest. 



13 

It is easy to see that to one owning such a vast amount of 
unproductive land, taxes are a heavy burden, and Mr. Astor's 
timely loan was soon exhausted. Gerrit Smith toiled very 
severely in those days and suffered greatly from care and 
anxiety. He cut down his living expenses and retrenched in 
every possible manner to avoid going into bankruptcy. In a 
letter to his wife, then in Philadelphia, with their daughter, 
dated December nth, 1839, he says : " Never, my dear wife, 
have I been reduced to such straits in money matters. I have 
some fifteen hundred debtors, but I receive almost literally 
nothing, and I can borrow nothing. I shall find it difficult to 
keep you and Libby in Philadelphia ; — difficult even to get 
money enough to visit you." His daughter was named 
Elizabeth, after his mother. 

But the times gradually changed, lands became salable, he 
realized $30,000 or $40,000 from the debt of $175,000 by taking 
an interest in a steamboat to secure which debt, he had been 
harassed with a vexatious law suit and had to pay fees to 
lawyers. Through his influence at Washington a custom house 
was established at Oswego and needed, but costly improve- 
ments greatly enchanced the value of his property there. 
Thus, by degrees, his business interests centered so largely in 
Oswego that he depended largely on the income from his 
property there for his supply of money. 

OSWEGO PROPERTY WAS VALUABLE. 

For twenty-five years his income from Oswego averaged 
$50,000 or $60,000 a year, and during the last ten years of his 
life it equalled $80,000 annually. He owned a hotel, the 
Fitzhugh House, in that city, but he never allowed intoxicating 
drinks sold in it, though that restriction caused lower rent to be 
received than he might have obtained had he allowed a bar in 
the house. With the care of his great landed estate in other 



14 

localities, taking the active interest he always did in public 
affairs and in many benevolent and reformatory causes, it is 
easy to see that he was always a very busy man, and that his 
cares and responsibilities were burdensome. He spent in the 
labors of his office, with his clerks and books, nine hours daily 
and sometimes ten, twelve, and even fifteen hours was he thus 
engaged. He not only superintended everything but did much 
work with his own hand. He was a model of minuteness and 
exactness ; a model too, of fairness and consideration. His 
business agent in Oswego, John B. Edwards, with whom the 
writer formed a very pleasant acquaintance, and who was one of 
Oswego's first citizens, being president of a bank, and very 
highly esteemed, declared that while in Mr. Smith's service 
forty-three years, not an unkind word was either spoken or 
written to him by his great hearted employer. 

MAGNIFICENT SPECIMEN OF MANHOOD. 

Gerrit Smith grew to be, in his prime, a splendid specimen of 
manhood ; physically, as well as morally and intellectually. 
He was six feet high and well proportioned. His head was 
large, his forehead high and broad, his eye bright, sparkling 
and expressive, his voice deep and musical, with great volume 
and power when he was roused, but always finely modulated ; 
his hair was brown and glossy and sometimes covered his broad 
linen collar, and any intelligent stranger would at first glance 
set him down as a man of mark and a natural leader of men. 
But he had some bodily infirmities which seriously impaired his 
efficiency and on one memorable occasion later in life, caused a 
complete collapse of his magnificent physical powers, and the 
temporary overthrow of his splendid reasoning faculties. As 
early as 1832, we find him regulating his diet with reference to 
the preservation of his health, abjuring at one time, not only 
spices and condiments, but flesh, fish and gravies. His occu- 



15 

pation being largely sedentary, it was his opinion that these arti- 
cles of food were not needed by him, though later in life that 
view seems to have been somewhat modified. At one time he 
thought flesh food unnecessary for anyone, and that, were it 
generally discarded, more people could be subsisted upon the 
earth and all have enough, than could be under existing arrange- 
ments. That opinion he afterwards abandoned or modified. 
Gerrit Sinith early became a believer in human progress, and 
that progress implies change ; hence he became willing to be 
called inconsistent with his former self provided always the 
change was for the better. 

He inherited much of his father's emotional religion, and his 
conceptions of the Divine character and requirements in his 
early life seem not to have varied greatly from the ideas com- 
mon in those days. He and his wife joined the Presbyterian 
church at Peterboro, March 17th, 1828. He had been superin- 
tendent of the Sunday school one year before he united with 
the church. His journal at that time was largely devoted to 
sermon texts : remarks on the sermons he had heard, names of 
the preachers, and so on, to the exclusion of other subjects. 
On his thirty-seventh birthday he records that his wife and him- 
self, under a sense of their sins, resolved to spend the follow- 
ing day in "fasting and prayer and searching of heart." 

As late as 1836, he laments his lack of relish for the Bible, 
but records that since his dear baby died he had allowed himself 
to read no other book on the Sabbath excepting sermons in 
church, or occasionally and unavoidably a few paragraphs. He 
had been brought up to regard the Bible as the infallible word 
of God, and he earnestly desired to know and obey the Divine 
will. 

But his religion entered into every relation and every act of 
his life, and was not reserved for Sabbath use only. He early 
learned to see in every man a brother, in every woman a sister. 



16 

Yes his philanthropy was even more vital than that. He saw in 
each member of the human family, another self ; and it seems 
to me that if ever any man loved his neighbor as himself, and 
did unto others as he would have them do to him, Gerrit Smith 
was that man. Yet, I have heard him, in his great humility, 
say, "I want to be a Christian, I strive to be a Christian, but I 
dare not say I am a Christian, for a Christian is one who loves 
his neighbor as himself, and I am afraid I do not love my neigh- 
bor as myself." He was a remarkably conscientious man. 
Every question, public or private, was decided by him in the 
light of absolute right and justice. 

He abhorred every compromise of principle, but he was ever 
ready and willing to come to an agreement with his fellow men 
in matters involving no sacrifice of his convictions of right. 
He became interested in political reform when less than 30 
years of age. He wrote an address to the voters of Madison 
county in the winter of 1823-4, which was an earnest and able 
plea for popularizing the government by making officers elec- 
tive by the people instead of having so many appointed. He 
argued that party names at that time were without meaning, 
the party issues obsolete, that the machinery of caucus nomina- 
tions and political conventions should be abolished, and that 
candidates should be judged solely by their merits and should 
be self-nominated. But self-seeking office-seekers and dema- 
gogues were his detestation. 

His first nomination to office was for State Senator on the 
Anti-Masonic ticket in 1827. He was not elected, but his oppo- 
sition to the influence of secret societies lasted all his life. 
About this time he became much interested in the temperance 
reformation and soon became earnestly opposed to all use of 
drinks that can intoxicate. In 1834 he wrote to Edward C. 
Delevan, a leading temperance reformer, taking very decided 
ground for total abstinence from all such drinks. But he did 



i7 

not lay all the blame upon either the drinker or the seller of 
such drinks. He regarded intemperance as a sin against God, 
and even moderate drinking as wrong, as setting a bad example 
to the weak and those lacking self -control ; but the business of 
selling such drinks he regarded as a crime to be suppressed by 
the strong arm of the law. He also condemned the sale of bar- 
ley to brewers, the raising of hops for beer, and consistently 
carried his principles into practical application ; also using only 
unfermented juice of the grape at the communion table, when 
his little church was almost alone in that particular. 



CHAPTER III. 

As Negro slavery existed in the state of New York till about 
1827, though the Act of Emancipation was passed in 1799, yet 
the law being gradual in its effects, the father of Gerrit Smith, 
like most wealthy men of that day, was a slave-holder, during 
Gerrit' s early years. The son soon learned to sympathize with 
and feel for the subject race, though many of the most revolt- 
ing features of Southern slavery (especially after the invention 
of the cotton gin had made slavery profitable and created much 
domestic slave trade, separation of families and the like), were 
unknown at the North. 

The agitation against slavery, begun by the Quaker, Benja- 
min Lundy, in the Northern slave States, and afterwards taken 
up by William Lloyd Garrison, did not at first reach Peterboro. 
^In June, 1828, Mr. Smith was a member of a State convention 
held to nominate Electors of President and Vice-President, and 
he wrote the address adopted by the convention. Slavery was 



i8 

not noticed in that address as a source of national danger 
although allusion was made to "the merciful efforts that are 
making to colonize our emancipated blacks on the coasts of 
Africa, and to kindle up those fires of civil and religious liberty 
which are soon to blaze over this benighted land," and Andrew 
Jackson, then a candidate for President, was condemned as the 
incarnation of the violent, military spirit, so radically inconsist- 
ent with republican institutions. Gerrit Smith was then a firm 
believer in the colonization society, which aimed not to set the 
slaves free, but to plant the free negroes on the coast of Africa. 
Daniel Webster came to distrust that society, of which the 
great Henry Clay of Kentucky was President while yet Gerrit 
Smith confided in it and gave largely to its funds. One of its 
strongest claims to the support of the churches was its promise 
to Christianize Africa. 

Even W. Iy. Garrison, in 1829, delivered an address before 
this society, which did not criticise either its aims or methods 
though he spoke feelingly of the wrongs of the slaves. Gerrit 
Smith at that time still held to the Calvinistic creed, and 
thought sending ' ' the gospel ' ' to Africa by free negroes a good 
scheme to promote the salvation of the world. But he soon 
began to see the nature of that society and after holding aloof 
for a time from taking sides in the conflict between it and the 
newly organized Anti-Slavery society, at length abandoned the 
old and cast in his lot with the new organization. 

As early as 1831, a few friends of the slaves undertook to 
hold an Abolition meeting in the First Baptist church in Syra- 
cuse, but they were assailed by a mob before they reached the 
place of meeting and went to Fayetteville instead and passed 
resolutions denouncing the outrage. It is said that neither the 
press nor any prominent citizen of the then village of Syracuse 
condemned the attack on free speech, but public sentiment 
upheld the mob. 



19 



DARK DAYS FOR ABOLITIONISTS. 

October 21st, 1835, was an important epoch in the history of 
the anti-slavery struggle. On that day a mob, said to be com- 
posed of ' ' gentlemen of property and standing, ' ' broke up an 
anti-slavery prayer meeting of women in the city of Boston, 
Mass., and dragged William Lloyd Garrison through Boston 
common with a rope around his body, threatening his life, and 
the same day another mob, inspired if not led by persons of 
influence in the community, broke up an abolition convention 
in the city of Utica, N. Y., and pursued the abolitionists out of 
the city as if they were wild beasts instead of quiet, inoffensive 
citizens simply seeking to obey the apostolic injunction to 
"Remember those in bonds as bound with them." Gerrit 
Smith, though dissatisfied with the attitude of the Colonization 
society had not yet called himself an abolitionist and only 
attended the convention as an interested spectator, having 
started with his wife to visit his father at Schenectady and 
stopped at Utica on their journey. But when a howling mob 
interrupted the proceedings of the meeting and drowned the 
voices of the speakers, his love of free speech led him to arise and 
make indignant protest as a citizen and not an abolitionist. But 
his protests were unavailing. Then he invited the convention 
to adjourn its sessions and meet at Peterboro next day, assuring 
the anti-slavery men protection and a fair hearing. The offer 
was gladly accepted, and from that hour Gerrit Smith became 
to the cause of the wronged bondmen ' ' as the shadow of a 
great rock in a weary land." 

At 10 o'clock that evening the master and mistress of the 
hospitable mansion at Peterboro returned, to the surprise of the 
household and at once set all hands at work preparing a royal 
welcome for the hunted abolitionists on the morrow. All night 
long necessary preparations for numerous guests were going on 



20 



and at 3 o'clock in the morning Gerrit Smith appeared in the 
kitchen, got writing materials and a light and commenced pre- 
paring a speech and resolutions for the day's session of the con- 
vention. About thirty of his guests arrived to breakfast, bear- 
ing marks of the rough treatment they had met with from the 
pitiless elements and more pitiless mob. Some of the younger 
men made light of their hardships, but many older ones found 
the experience a trying one. The day was fine, seventy or 
eighty dined with Mr. Smith, a hundred or more supped with 
him and as many as forty were lodged by him over night. 

Those who heard the great speech, made by this great man 
that memorable day, never forgot the powerful impetus then 
given the cause of emancipation. 

" Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust, 
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just, 
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, 
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified, 
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied." 

Gerrit Smith was emphatically a brave man. When, as now, 
he saw what was the right side no terrors could daunt his heroic 
spirit and he threw himself into the cause of deliverance to the 
slaves with all his vast powers of mind, body and estate. 

But his entry in his journal at that time shows his deep relig- 
ious spirit as well as his magnificent courage. 

Next Sunday, October 25th, he writes in his journal, "The 
Lord carry much instruction to my mind and heart from the 
scenes of the past week and may he lead me and enable me to 
rely on himself for protection in all the perils that surround and 
threaten me. The Lord inspire my heart with holy courage. 
The Lord make me his humble, confiding, holy, little child and 
profit greatly my dear wife by the instructive providences 
through which we are passing." 



21 



LEAVES COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 

Soon after identifying himself with the abolitionists, Mr. 
Smith wrote to the secretary of the Colonization society stating 
that he should cease to work with that organization on account, 
as he stated, of its abandoning its original purpose, and becom- 
ing an anti-abolition society, but he sent his check for $3,000, 
the full amount of his subscriptions, though they were not yet 
due, and he thought himself legally absolved from all his prom- 
ises to pay money to that society on the ground that the society 
had not kept its part of the contract. He expressed much 
regret at being compelled to part company with his late fellow 
laborers, and intimated that he might aid them again if they 
returned to their former purposes and methods. 

Having now chosen his part in the great moral warfare of his 
time, he placed himself in the front rank and did manful battle 
against the powerful enemy he had assailed. 

He would hear to no compromise and no cessation of hostili- 
ties, but waged constant and unrelenting war against what he 
regarded as the great enemy of God and man. His voice, his 
pen, his purse, his whole being was consecrated to the cause of 
immediate emancipation. His labors at this time were, indeed, 
immense. Besides his vast business affairs he took up the work 
of an apostle of a vastly unpopular and much hated and 
persecuted cause. But for the self-denying and self-sacrificing 
labors of Gerrit Smith and other agitators of those critical 
times, anyone can see that the whole subsequent history of 
this country, and perhaps that of the civilized world, would 
have been different from what it has been. They aroused the 
great free North to the danger to the whole nation caused by 
Southern slavery. They awakened the public conscience and 
created an anti-slavery sentiment, which enabled the North to 
not only elect an an ti- slavery president in i860, but gave Abra- 



22 



ham Lincoln a people behind him to sustain him in killing the 
pro-slavery rebellion and slavery itself in the same war. 
Before the battle of cannon and musketry must ever come the 
conflict of ideas and principles. Gerrit Smith and Garrison 
made possible Sumner and Seward and later Grant, Sher- 
man and Sheridan. 

"god winnowed the nation." 

It seemed almost special Providence that at this trying time in 
anti-slavery history, such a man as Gerrit Smith, with his great 
wealth and his magnificent mental and moral equipment, should 
have been added to the ranks of the few struggling, persecuted 
and despised Abolitionists. I once heard Wm. L. Garrison say, 
" God has winnowed this nation to obtain the few who shall 
lead this mighty crusade for human freedom," and though the 
speaker was, himself, one of those few, it did seem that he 
spoke the simple truth. Garrison was the leader in New Eng- 
land, but Gerrit Smith was easily chief among the Abolitionists 
of the Middle and Western States. His contributions to the 
anti-slavery press were constant and inspiring. He wrote, and 
had printed at his own expense, letters, arguments and appeals 
covering every branch of the work, and the mails were contin- 
ually carrying his forceful and eloquent writings into all parts 
of the country, except in the South, where such documents 
were excluded as dangerous and incendiary. A reward of 
$20,000. for his head was offered by some fire-eating defender of 
slavery in those terrible times. Yet the proscribed and hated 
Apostle of Freedom traveled freely everywhere at the North, 
and his assassination was not attempted notwithstanding the 
temptation. He hired halls, where churches were closed against 
him, paid his own expenses, paid poorer brethren for their time 
in getting up his meetings, and addressed the multitudes who 
crowded to hear him with an earnestness, a power of argument, 



23 

a pathos of appeal, and an overwhelming torrent of eloquence 
which seemed almost irresistible. I once heard a rough man in 
Broome county say to another of the same class, "You would 
go ten miles to hear him speak if you didn't believe a word he 
said ;" such was the attraction and magnetism of the man. 
The Bible was at his tongue's end and he quoted its denuncia- 
tions of the oppressor with terrific power. He thundered and 
lightened, and his appeals for sympathy for the sufferings and 
sorrows of the crushed slaves would move, it seemed, even the 
hardest heart. 

The people had unbounded faith and confidence in the man 
himself, and in his perfect honesty and disinterestedness. They 
saw he could be actuated by only the noblest motives, and they 
opened their hearts to him, and were swayed and aroused to 
action by his eloquence and his sublime example. In addition 
to this, he expended large sums of money in purchasing the 
freedom of individual slaves. He sent James C. Fuller of 
Skaneateles on a mission into the slave States to find and 
redeem from slavery a woman who had been a slave in the 
family of Mrs. Smith's father in Maryland. She was found and 
ransomed with her husband and five children, came to Peter- 
boro to live, and many years after gave two stalwart sons as 
soldiers to help put down the Rebellion and slavery. They 
followed Colonel Shaw in the successful assault on Fort 
Wagner, when the cultured and heroic leader of colored troops 
laid down his life that his country might live. 

Amid his incessant labors against slavery and the care of his 
vast private business, Gerrit Smith found time to make a 
thorough study of the relations sustained by that institution to 
the Constitution of the United States. He did not, on careful 
examination of the Constitution, and the history of its framing 
and adoption, find, with Garrison and his associates and follow- 
ers, that it was ' 1 a covenant with death and an agreement with 



24 

hell." Neither did he find, with Chief Justice Taney and the 
United States Supreme court, that the people who adopted that 
Constitution believed, " negroes had no rights which white 
men were bound to respect." But he found that the statesmen 
who framed that memorable and wise document carefully and 
intentionally excluded the words ' ' slave ' ' and ' ' slavery ' ' from 
the organic law, that they substituted the word ' ' service ' ' 
instead of the word ' ' servitude ' ' for the avowed reason that 
the former related to freemen, the latter to slaves, and that the 
Constitution as interpreted by all recognized rules of interpreta- 
tion was an anti-slavery instrument, though not prohibiting 
slavery in express terms. He took issue with the Supreme 
Court of the nation, as well as with the Garrison Abolitionists, 
and planted himself squarely upon the highest human law 
of the land, as well as the divine law, and declared 
chattel slavery not only in opposition to the law of nature 
and of God, but to the organic law, as well. He found 
Blackstone, Hooker and other great writers, enunciating the 
doctrine that acts of Parliament or of Congress when manifestly 
against natural justice and human rights were not simply bad 
law, but are really no law, null and void, and to be trampled 
contemptuously under foot. Hence he declared slavery and the 
dram shop to be inherently and necessarily illegal and outlaws. 

In this seemingly novel and radical doctrine he was sup- 
ported by able and sound minds. General Granger, Member 
of Congress from Syracuse, in an able speech in the House, 
held the existence of slavery in the Southern States, to be 
in defiance of the Constitution of the United States, and 
Horace Greeley, in an editorial in the New York Tribune 
approved the speech. Of course, this was years after Gerrit 
Smith had first vindicated the Constitution from the slanders of 
pro-slavery men. It is worthy of remark in this connection 
that when after the Civil war, the amendment forbidding 



25 

slavery was adopted, no one suggested the necessity of striking 
out any part of the old Constitution, as in conflict with the 
Abolition amendment, it being conceded that no direct sanction 
of slavery was contained in the original document. 

VIEWS OF GARRISONIAN ABOLITIONISTS. 

One of the leaders of the Garrisonian Abolitionists said : 
' ' There is no deliverance to the American slave without rush- 
ing over the ruins of the American church and the American 
Union." The followers of Garrison were disunionists ; they 
sought to get the Northern free States to secede from the slave 
States, thinking that, without the aid of the North, the South 
could not keep the slaves in bondage. But Gerrit Smith and 
the political abolitionists proposed to get control of the 
general government by the ballot and abolish slavery by law. 
It is true that the Liberty party, which first had a candidate 
for President in 1840, when James G. Birney, a brother-in-law 
of Gerrit^'Smith, polled a few thousand votes, did not at first 
demand direct abolition by the national government, but it did 
announce its purpose to use all constitutional means to abolish 
it, and in future years, while the Free Soil and afterward the 
Republican party, admitted constitutional protection to slavery 
in the slave States, the little Liberty party persistently declared 
slavery an outlaw in the land. Even in i860 a national con- 
vention of that party in Syracuse refused to act with the 
Republican party as not being an abolition party and nominated 
Gerrit Smith for President. But in 1864 the Republican party 
then being an abolition party, nearly all abolitionists gave it an 
enthusiastic support. 

Until the outbreak of the Civil war Garrison and his coad- 
jutors steadily and consistently refused to vote or hold office, 
but after that, Mr. Garrison said, as "Death and hell had 
seceded," he and his associates could support the government. 



26 



Having once put behind him all selfish motives and devoted 
his life to the service of God and his fellow men, Gerrit Smith 
found much that seemed to him to be wrong and contrary to 
true religion in the present state of human society. He found 
himself the possessor of immense tracts of land. But he came 
to the conclusion that all men have as much right to the soil as 
to the air and sunlight, as being alike essential to their exist- 
ence and welfare. Hence he sought to use the control which he 
legally held over land which others had a right to use, in such a 
manner as to put into occupancy and possession those for 
whom, in his belief, the creator designed it, viz., the poor and 
landless. He thought colored men the poorest of the poor, 
because the existing prejudice against them, even at the North, 
stood in the wa}^ of their rising in society, by acquiring either 
wealth or education, and acting on his principle to help those 
most needy and most neglected, he planned to give farms to 
several thousand black men, then residents of New York State. 
To enable him to make a wise selection, he asked three repre- 
sentative colored men in the city of New York to select the fit 
persons to receive deeds of lands in twelve southeastern coun- 
ties, and persons in whose judgment and integrity he had con- 
fidence were chosen to select proper recipients of his bounty in 
the other counties. He designed to give, and did give, in all 
about 3,000 small farms to black men, hoping thus to encourage 
them to leave menial employments in cities and become inde- 
pendent farmers, and he asked his New York city committee to 
choose more than half of the persons to be thus favored. He 
also proposed with each deed of land to give $10 in money to 
enable the recipient of the deed to visit his farm. His letter to 
the New York committee shows great anxiety to benefit the free 
colored people of his own State. At that time no black man not 
an owner of real estate or a certain amount of taxable personal 
property could vote, and as Mr. Smith was going to make them 



27 

voters, he was careful that those who received deeds should 
be as far as practicable worthy citizens. He insisted that no 
drunkard be placed upon the list to be submitted to him, and, 
as far as possible no one addicted to the use of intoxicating 
drinks, but all must be poor and landless. He also requested 
the city committee to issue an address to the new freeholders, 
giving good counsel and especially warning them against intox- 
icating drinks. 

GAVE AWAY FARMS. 

The gifts to these colored men were made late in the year 
1846, and conveyed lands in Franklin, Essex, Hamilton, Ful- 
ton, Oneida, Delaware, Madison and Ulster counties. Each 
deed conveyed from forty to sixty acres. Though he ardently 
desired the grantees to become farmers, the deeds were uncon- 
ditional, and the owner of a farm might sell it, if he chose. 
Many of the farms were chiefly valuable for the timber growing 
upon them. He himself paid all debts and incumbrances, so as 
to give a clear title in each case, and the deeds were all made 
and acknowledged at his own expense, leaving to the receiver 
only the expense of recording. He was still heavily in debt? 
but having made extensive sales of land he was able, without 
injustice to creditors, to make these magnificent donations. 
In May, 1849, he wrote a letter to five leading citizens of New 
York city, the eminent Quaker philanthropist, Isaac T. Hop- 
per, being one of them, proposing to give farms to a thousand 
white persons, and asking them to select one hundred and fifty 
of the thousand from their county. At first the plan was to 
give the deeds to men and women in equal numbers, but later 
he concluded to give land to the men and money to the women. 

The persons selected must be residents of the State, must be 
virtuous, landless and poor, and "entirely clear of the vice of 
drinking intoxicating liquors." Ten dollars in money went 



28 



with each deed to help to move on the land or pay taxes. Each 
man selected was to receive from thirty to sixty acres of land 
or, if there should not be enough land, $50.00 in money. In a 
few instances, he said, the acres might exceed sixty, and in a 
few where the land was more valuable, might be less than 
thirt)^. Each woman selected was to receive $50.00 in money 
instead of land. 

But his donations of land, large as they were, were but a 
small part of his immense benefactions. He gave thirty thou- 
sand dollars to found a free library in the city of Oswego, 
where he had much property. Hamilton College received 
twenty thousand dollars from Gerrit Smith. At one time he 
gave two thousand dollars to relieve the sufferers from a famine 
in Ireland. At another one thousand dollars to poor in Eng- 
land. The Poles got another one thousand dollars, the Greeks 
as much more. Those who suffered from a fire at Canastota, 
nine miles from Peterboro, got next morning one thousand dol- 
lars from Gerrit Smith. The losers from the grasshopper pest 
in Kansas and Nebraska got from him one thousand dollars. 
His private benefactions were immense. He used to say that 
he meant to die poor. But he was far from being careless or 
indiscriminate in his bounties. 

The impudence of some of the petitions for assistance that 
came to him was not simply ridiculous, but disgusting. Some 
people seemed to think the injunction, "Give to him that ask- 
eth," was literally obeyed by him. I saw a letter sent to him 
by a lady, evidently of considerable intelligence, telling of 
trouble she had with her relatives near Peterboro, about prop- 
erty matters, and making the modest request that Gerrit Smith 
buy her a farm, in place of one she had lost, and let it be 
located near her relatives, that they might see that he "had a 
heart." In one year he paid five thousand dollars to rescue 
and aid fugitives from slavery. In one year, after the war, he 



29 



gave Hampton school for colored pupils two thousand dollars. 
It must be remembered that compared with the multi-million- 
aires of the present day, Gerrit Smith was not a rich man, and 
that his manner of life was simple and unostentatious, giving 
to others what many men in his circumstances would have spent 
in vulgar show. Among his neighbors at Peterboro, he was 
known as everybody's friend, and he looked after the poor and 
destitute with the care of a father toward his children. He 
had a smile and a cordial greeting for the most humble and 
despised. As early as 1842 an obscure and it seems disreputa- 
ble man in Peterboro, believed to have been guilty of disgrace- 
ful conduct, which the law did not punish, was assaulted by a 
mob and shamefully abused. The diary of Mr. Smith shows 
how deeply he felt the wrong done the pitiable victim and the 
disgrace to the village, whose good name he highly valued. At 
first, it seems, the principal men of the place, excepting him- 
self, seemed inclined to apologize for if not to justify the out- 
rage. It seems the mob broke into the house of their victim in 
the night time — a felony — and seized him and rode him on a 
rail, or board in place of a rail. Gerrit Smith wrote a letter to 
the District Attorney of the county asking that the matter be 
brought before the Grand jury, but no indictments were found. 
But he labored persistently with his friends and neighbors till 
he secured from a public meeting of the villagers, the unan- 
imous adoption of resolutions offered by himself denouncing 
the outrage, though at first almost all but he seemed to 
approve it. 



CHAPTER IV. 



While Gerrit Smith would not tolerate mob law for the pun- 
ishment of unchastity, even though its victim was poor and 
despised, few men ever had a higher regard for moral purity in 
both men and women than he. No knight of the olden time 
was more brave and chivalrous in defence of the " weaker sex" 
than he. His domestic relations were a model, and I know 
from eight years' residence as his neighbor in Peterboro, that 
he was always held in the highest esteem by all classes and con- 
ditions of his neighbors. 

At an early period he embraced the doctrine of the equality of 
the sexes, and held that men and women should be equally pro- 
tected in the right to acquire and hold property, and also in the 
right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the foremost champion 
of the equal rights of women is a grand-daughter, as Gerrit 
Smith was a grandson, of the noble James Livingston, who left 
his law practice in Montreal and collecting 300 brave men to 
help him, rushed to the rescue of the cause of freedom in his 
native colony of New York. Since writing my first paper I 
learn from another worthy descendant of Colonel Livingston, 
that at that critical period of the revolutionary war when the 
treason of Benedict Arnold seemed on the point of success, it 
was that brave officer who gave the order to fire on the Vulture, 
the British vessel that was to take Major Andre on board and 
carry him back to Sir Henry Clinton at New York. The Vul- 
ture being driven down the river, Andre was captured, treason 
exposed and the plot frustrated. Who knows how different 
American history might have been but for Colonel Livingston's 
timely order to fire. It seems too, that he acted without orders 
from Washington and risked censure and punishment in thus 
firing on the British vessel. 



3 1 

But while an earnest advocate of the political and civil equal- 
ity of the sexes, Mr. Smith believed that women must qualify 
themselves to wisely use the equal opportunities he demanded 
for them. He insisted that the distinction of sex is physical 
only, neither mental nor moral ; and that strength, courage and 
other so-called masculine qualities should be feminine also, 
while purity of thought, word and act, modesty, gentleness, 
tenderness and sympathy should adorn the characters of men as 
well as of women. He insisted, however, that the passion of 
most women for dress and their persistency in wearing a dress 
that condemned them to a life of display instead of usefulness, 
was at the root of the evils complained of. Hence the reform 
in regard to women, which most interested him was dress 
reform. 

ON DRESS REFORM. 

To Mrs. Stanton's inquiry why, with his opinions concerning 
the equality of the sexes, he had no more faith in the move- 
ment for the rights of women, he frankly answered. "It is 
not in the proper hands ; the proper hands are not to be found. 
* * * Only let woman attire her person fitly for the whole 
battle of life — that great and often rough battle, which she is as 
much bound to fight as man is, and the common sense expressed 
in the change will put to flight all the nonsensical fancies about 
her inferiority to man. No more will then be heard of her 
being made of a finer material than man is made of, and, on the 
contrary, no more will then be heard of her being but the com- 
plement of man, and of its taking both a man and a woman (the 
woman of course but a small part of it), to make up a unit. 
No more will it then be said that there is sex in mind, an ori- 
ginal, sexual difference in intellect." Again, in the same letter 
he writes, "I hazard nothing in saying that the relation between 
the dress and the degradation of the American woman is as vital 



32 

as that between the cramped foot and degradation of a Chinese 
woman, as vital as that between the uses of the inmate of the 
harem, and the apparel and training provided for her. 

' ' Women are holding their meetings and with great ability do 
they urge their claims to the rights of property and suffrage. 
But, as in the case of the colored man, the great needed change 
is in himself, so also in the case of woman, the great needed 
change is in herself. Of what comparative avail would be her 
exercise of the right of suffrage if she is still to remain the 
victim of her present false notions of herself, and of her rela- 
tions to the other sex ? ' ' 

Of course, such language was not pleasing to the fanatical 
advocates of woman suffrage ; neither was it satisfactory to 
those holding ancient ideas of the relations of the sexes. But 
he expressed what he deemed important truth, believing truth 
will ultimately prevail. 

PREACHED "BIBLE POLITICS." 

His religion was so intensely practical that he made compara- 
tively little account of creeds and dogmas or of church organi- 
zation except as they promoted human welfare and the advance- 
ment of righteousness. He found most of the clergy of that 
day indifferent to or hostile to reforms, anti-slavery and tem- 
perance — in which he took so deep an interest ; and in order to 
preach a more practical religion as well as to purify politics, he 
commenced preaching what he called " Bible Politics" on Sun- 
day. Great crowds of people thronged to hear him ; the meet- 
ings being usually in the open air, as the weather was favorable. 
His audiences were greatly moved and morally quickened. 
Soon he began to see the evil influences of sectarian prejudices 
in preventing the adoption of anti-slavery and temperance prin- 
ciples among the religious denominations. The Presbyterian 
church to which he at first belonged was divided into two parts 



33 

—"Old School" and "New School." The "Old School" 
adopted resolutions which Gerrit Smith considered favoring 
slavery and the ' ' New School ' ' refused to denounce slavery as 
a sin. Even the local church at Peterboro connected with the 
" New School " following the example of the General Assem- 
bly, refused to adopt anti-slavery resolutions or to commit itself 
against intemperance, as he wished it to do. He also regarded 
its leading members as apologizing for, if not justifying the 
mob that had disgraced the little village. After persistent 
labors to bring his fellow church members to stand with him 
for freedom, temperance and righteousness and without suc- 
cess, he, with others, late in 1843, left the "old church," in 
which he had been a member seventeen years, and its leading 
member as well — both spiritually and financially — and after 
mature deliberation and much prayer for divine direction, 
started "the Church of Peterboro," or, as Mr. Smith would 
have phrased it, undertook to get the Church of Peterboro, 
composed of all true Christians of Peterboro, to come together 
on the simple basis of their common Christian character ; each 
having for himself his own views of dogmas and creeds, but 
not making them a test for his brethren. Assemblies on like 
foundations were afterwards gathered in contiguous towns and 
villages, at Cazenovia, Canastota, Georgetown and other places. 
Thus Gerrit Smith became a pioneer in the cause of Christian 
union, on the only practical basis, character not creeds. 

His profound reverence of and devotion to justice and truth, 
and his magnificent courage and heroism led him to refuse to be 
bound by any authority plainly in conflict with right and jus- 
tice. He loved and venerated the Bible, but as Jesus said of 
Moses' freedom of divorce " For the hardness of your hearts he 
gave you this precept," so Gerrit Smith refused to be bound by 
any so-called ' ' thus saith the L,ord ' ' when his own moral 
instincts, his heart and conscience as well as his reason plainly 



34 

testified to him that the Lord never said so, but had said the 
contrary. He would not disbelieve the testimony of modern 
science and of centuries of human experience which teach that 
intoxicating drinks are hurtful, simply because it is written in 
the book of proverbs, " Give strong drink to him that is ready 
to perish and wine to him that is of a heavy heart ; let him 
drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no 
more." If Jesus did make intoxicating wine for drink at Cana 
of Galilee, which he did not believe, if he did, Jesus must have 
made a mistake and could not have been the deity himself, who 
makes no mistakes. 

HIS VIEWS ON THE BIBLE. 

When the Old Testament speaks of a bond servant as his 
master's " money " Gerrit Smith could not believe that passage 
"infallible." He used to say "The Bible is the best book in 
the world, if rightly used. But if used to suppress free search 
after truth and to promote unrighteousness, it becomes the 
worst book in the world." His faith in God as the father and 
lover of men, would not permit him to believe God sanctions 
any wrong. He knew the Bible comes to us on human testi- 
mony, and from human hands, and though he believed much of 
it divinely inspired, like Martin Luther, he would use the rea- 
son and conscience God had given to him for that purpose, to 
find out how far that inspiration went, and distinguish between 
the divine and the human. Martin Luther thought the book of 
James ought not to be in the Bible. Gerrit Smith loved James' 
epistle, but he thought the Bible, though full of saving truths 
contained a few errors. At first the church people were shocked 
at what some stigmatized as infidel opinions, but those who knew 
him best came to feel that if he erred it was only the head and 
not the heart that went astray. Many others stood ready to bless 
and thank the strong, brave man who had the moral courage to 



35 

speak his inmost convictions of truth unmoved by church 
anathema or unpopularity. It grieved the tender heart of Mr. 
Smith to be obliged to shock the prejudices and even the relig- 
ious faith of many life-long friends, some of whom had borne 
with him the heat and burden of the anti-slavery warfare, but 
truth was to him paramount to all else. 

HIS PART IN THE JKRRY RESCUE. 

Gerrit Smith was attending an anti-slavery State convention 
in Syracuse when the slave Jerry was arrested in 185 1, about 
one year after the fugitive slave law was enacted. Daniel 
Webster, once considered an enemy of slavery, in his speech in 
the United States Senate March 7th, 1850, had made such a bid 
for the support of the slave power for next President that 
Whittier wrote the poem ' ' Ichabod, ' ' in lamentation over his 
fall. In a speech in Syracuse not long before the seizure of 
Jerry, Webster had denounced those who refused obedience to 
that law as " traitors," and threatened its enforcement in 
Syracuse in the midst of the next anti-slavery convention. 
The attempt was made, at such a time, too, but the " god-like " 
Daniel proved a false prophet. Gerrit Smith seemed on that 
memorable occasion more than a match for Daniel Webster. 
In harmony with the plans laid by Gerrit Smith, Samuel J. 
May, Charles A. Wheaton (once President of the Board of 
Education of Syracuse, and who built the Wheaton Block, 
where the Wieting block now stands) and others, the hunted 
slave was forcibly rescued from the United States officers who 
had him in custody, the marshal getting only a broken arm in 
the struggle, as he then concluded "discretion the better part 
of valor" and Jerry was sent to Canada, to the care of the 
British Lion. 

The next morning, Mr. Smith introduced into the conven- 
tion resolutions denouncing Daniel Webster and his prediction 



36 



and exulting that the people of Syracuse had trampled the 
tyrants* law under their feet. I quote from the preamble and 
resolutions : 

"Whereas, Daniel Webster, that base and infamous enemy of the 
human race, did in a speech of which he delivered himself, in Syracuse 
last spring, exultingly and insultingly predict that fugitive slaves would 
yet be taken away from Syracuse and even from anti-slavery conventions in 
Syracuse, and whereas the attempt to fulfill this prediction was delayed 
until the first day of October, 1851, when the Liberty party of the State of 
New York were holding their annual convention in Syracuse ; and whereas 
the attempt was defeated by the mighty uprising of 2,500 brave men, before 
whom the half-dozen kidnappers were 'as tow,' therefore, 

' ' Resolved, That we rejoice that the City of Syracuse— the anti-slavery 
city of Syracuse — the city of anti-slavery conventions, our beloved and 
glorious city of Syracuse — still remains undisgraced by the fulfillment of 
the satanic prediction of the Satanic Daniel Webster." 

Other resolves follow, and for several years thereafter the 
rescue of Jerry was celebrated each year on the anniversary, 
October 1st. In 1852, I was present at that celebration, in the 
round house of the Central railroad then just built, and W. L,. 
Garrison, Frederick Douglass, L/Ucretia Mott and many other 
leading spirits were present. Gerrit Smith and Samuel J. May 
each publicly acknowledged himself responsible for the 
" rescue," and Mr. Smith said: "Now if I am indicted I hope 
you will go my bail. ' ' Indictments of some rescuers were found 
in United States court and Gerrit Smith was admitted to the 
bar as a lawyer that he might defend the accused, but I believe 
the few poor men who were indicted, some of them colored, 
were never punished under the law, though harassed with 
prosecutions. Some of them had to go to Auburn to give bail, 
before Judge Conkling, whose famous son, Roscoe, afterwards 
became a leading figure in national politics. William H. 
Seward signed their bail bonds, remarking that his action 
would not probably be construed as an endorsement of the law. 



37 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 

In November, 1852, Gerrit Smith was elected as an indepen- 
dent candidate for Congress from the Madison and Oswego dis- 
trict, getting more than 8,000 votes, the Democratic candidate 
6,206 and the Whig candidate 5,620. His election was, under 
the circumstances, a wonderful testimony to the personal regard 
in which he was held by those who knew him best. In both 
those counties he had been well known from his youth and a 
large part of the voters had heard his burning and eloquent 
appeals for freedom and purity. But it cannot be supposed that 
all who voted for him agreed with all his views on public ques- 
tions. They thought, however, such a strong, brave, true man 
was needed in Congress, and they burst the trammels of party 
allegiance and elected him. 

It is interesting at this distance of time to read how his elec- 
tion was regarded. The New York Times, then edited by its 
founder, Henry J. Raymond, scouted the idea of such a Con- 
gressman ; but Horace Greeley, a much greater editor, as well as 
man, wrote in his Tribune : " We are heartily glad that Gerrit 
Smith is going to Washington. He is an honest, brave, kind- 
hearted Christian philanthropist, whose religion is not put aside 
with his Sunday cloak, but lasts him clear through the week. 
We think him wrong in some of his notions of political econ- 
omy * * * but we heartily wish more such great, pure, 
loving souls could find their way into Congress. He will find 
his seat anything but comfortable, but his presence there will do 
good, and the country will know him better and esteem him 
more highly than it has yet done. ' ' 

William Jay, of Revolutionary ancestry, himself a personal 
friend to Mr. Smith, was delighted and sent his warmest con- 
gratulations. William H. Seward wrote that he could not con- 
gratulate him on defeating his (Seward's) party's candidate, but 



33 

he looked with confidence to the effect of his election as he did 
to Gerrit Smith's " action in the House as full of hope and pro- 
mise for the cause of liberty and humanity." After his election 
he issued a circular letter to the voters of his district, in which 
he distinctly avowed his most radical views of slavery and its 
relations to law and the Constitution ; declared that his inclina- 
tions would lead him to resign the office which duty required 
him to accept, and expressed his deep gratitude for the confi- 
dence shown by them in voting for one with such unpopular 
opinions. 

When he started for Washington in the fall of 1853 his health 
was not good and he went by slow stages, and though he 
arrived prior to the opening of the session in December, he 
was not able to take his seat until December 12th. Yet he 
made his first speech in Congress on the 20th of the same 
month. That speech was made on a resolution of the chairman 
of the committee on ways and mean to distribute the message 
of President Pierce among different committees, and referred to 
that part of the message which told of and endorsed the action 
of Captain Ingraham, of our navy, in defense of Martin Kosta, 
an American subject who had been seized by Austrian officers in 
a foreign port and restrained of his liberty. 

William I,. Marcy, of New York, was then Secretary of State, 
and Mr. Smith, while commending the general attitude of the 
administration, in this matter, took occasion to criticise the 
Secretary, for, as he said, making an interpolation in the golden 
rule, viz., by inserting the words, ''When not acting under legal 
restraint," thus qualifying a command which admits of no 
qualification. Thus, at the outset, he demanded absolute right- 
eousness. 

AN "ABOLITION SPKECH." 

When Mr. Sollers, of Maryland, rose to a question of order 
and said "The gentleman from New York is making an aboli- 



39 

tion speech, and I do not see its relevancy to the question 
before the house," the chairman, Mr. Orr, of South Carolina, 
promptly ruled that the gentleman from New York was in 
order and was entitled to the floor. Then the great Abolitionist 
said he was making an abolition speech and he hoped the gen- 
tleman from Maryland would be patient under it, adding "I, in 
my turn, will be patient under an anti-abolition speech." He 
proceeded to speak of what he called the atheistic doctrine of the 
administration, and did make an eloquent and forcible anti-slav- 
ery speech without further interruption, though he severely cen- 
sured the administration of the party in power in the House. 

Two days later, Mr. Wright, in a reply to Mr. Smith's 
speech, put a question to Mr. Smith, and the new member was 
ready to answer on the spot. The question related to the clause 
in the Constitution which speaks of ' ' persons held to service ' ' 
and Gerrit Smith cited the Madison papers to prove that ■ ' ser- 
vice " was inserted instead of " servitude" for the stated reason 
that the former related to freemen, the latter to slaves. Again 
January 5th, 1854, Mr. Smith made a very happy and appro- 
priate speech in favor of thanking Captain Ingraham for deliv- 
ering Kosta. On January 16th he offered a preamble and 
resolutions in regard to the public lands, in which he declared 
against land monopoly and in favor of the equal rights of all to 
a share of the soil. On a motion to lay the resolutions on the 
table, Joshua R. Giddings called for the yeas and nays, but they 
were not ordered, and the motion was carried. The object of 
the resolutions thus laid on the table was to prevent the sale or 
gift of public lands except to actual settlers — an object afterward 
partially attained by the enactment of the homestead law. The 
1 8th of January, the House having before it a bill making the 
annual appropriation to support the Military Academy at West 
Point, Gerrit Smith was to make some remarks upon it. Mr. 
Jones, of Tennessee, and Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, 



4 o 

sought to prevent him on the ground that the previous question 
had been called, which Mr. Smith denied, and the Speaker said 
the Clerk informed him it had not been called, and Mr. Smith 
proceeded to make an able and impressive speech against war. 
Mr. Orr, of South Carolina, soon rose to a question of order, 
claiming that the speech was not confined to the question before 
the House. Mr. Smith asked what would become of the Mili- 
tary Academy were war abandoned ? The Speaker decided the 
gentleman from New York was in order and Mr. Smith said : 
" I presumed the Speaker would so decide," and went on speak- 
ing of the great loss of human life in war, and also the burden- 
some debts laid on the people from the same cause. Again Mr. 
Orr interrupted and again the Speaker sustained Gerrit Smith, 
who then made, without being interruped again, a very able and 
interesting argument against war, as being a foolish, unwise 
and wicked method of settling national differences. 

On the 7th of February, the question of distributing seeds 
by the government being under consideration, Mr. Smith made 
a brief speech against the government engaging in any work 
except simply protecting the people in their rights. February 
2 1 st the House being in committee of the whole on the state of 
the Union, Gerrit Smith made a speech on the Homestead bill, 
his motto being ' ' Homes for all. ' ' At the outset he earnestly 
but kindly protested against the discourtesy with which his land 
reform resolutions had been treated the previous month, and 
made a dignified and manly plea for kind and gentlemanly 
treatment of each other by all members of the body. Then he 
made an exhaustive, able and forcible argument against land 
monopoly and in favor of each man's right to a share of the 
soil. But when the bill was finally voted upon he voted against 
it, because it had been amended so as to give homes only to 
white persons, and in a letter to Frederick Douglass he says he 
was a man before he was a land reformer ; and therefore he 
could not consent to ignore the manhood of the black man. 



CHAPTER V. 



In addition to beginning thus early to find his proper position 
as an orator and debator in the House, Gerrit Smith soon made 
for himself a social position in Washington such as new mem- 
bers do not usually attain. His family went with him and he 
not only "kept house," but gave numerous dinners to which 
every member of the House was invited at different times. 
His dignified and gentlemanly bearing, his brilliant powers of 
conversation, his respect for other men's opinions, soon made 
his house attractive to members of the most opposite opinions 
from his own. Many leading Southern men, when they came 
to know the great-hearted champion of immediate emancipa- 
tion, found him no bigoted and gloomy fanatic, dealing 
"damnation round the land," but a genial, good-natured, cul- 
tivated Christian gentlemen, willing to make all reasonable 
allowances for differences in birth and education, but perfectly 
frank and fearless in testifying against oppression and wrong. 
During the years when the writer of these papers was honored 
with the friendship and confidence of Gerrit Smith he told me 
of some of his pleasant experiences with leading men of the 
South, most, if not all of them, slaveholders. He was invited 
to dine with ex-Governor Aiken of South Carolina, one of the 
largest, if not the largest, slaveholder in all the South, and was 
treated with the utmost cordiality, notwithstanding his radical 
anti-slavery speeches in Congress and his faithful testimony 
against wrong in the freedom of social intercourse. 

But no wine nor any kind of intoxicating drink was ever 
found on Mr. Smith's table, and he offered no cigars afterwards. 
On one occasion, many Southern members being present, 
slavery was discussed, and though no Southerner at that time 



42 

openly admitted himself in sympathy with abolition, a young 
and generous-hearted member said to Mr. Smith in private : 
" I hate slavery." 

Even John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, afterwards Vice- 
President of the Southern Confederacy, became so attached to 
the distinguished leader of anti-slavery men that he invited Mr. 
Smith to visit him at his home in Lexington and make a speech 
upon any subject he chose and said he would guarantee him 
protection and a hearing. Mr. Smith told me he believed the 
Kentuckian would have kept his word had he put him to the 
test. But Gerrit Smith was the soul of chivalry and honor, 
and would not take advantage of like chivalry at the great risk 
of getting his friend into trouble. Neither was he a cheap 
sensationalist to seek notoriety in that way. 

A MAN OF MANY IDEAS. 

Those who suppose Gerrit Smith a man of but one idea 
would be quickly undeceived would they read the published 
volume of his speeches in Congress. On the 7th of March he 
made a brief speech against a bill to aid the Territory of 
Minnesota in constructing a railroad. He opposed it partly 
because it proposed to appropriate public lands, which he 
wanted given to settlers only. He admitted that the road 
would benefit the territory, but he insisted that government 
was only to protect the people in providing for themselves, not 
to provide for them ; and that if government faithfully pro- 
tected the people it would have enough to do without under- 
taking to provide railroads or canals or churches or even 
schools for them, so narrow did he make the legitimate sphere 
of government. As Mr. Smith referred to the Homestead bill, 
and approved of giving lands to the landless in this speech, a 
member from Illinois raised the point of order that he was 
not confining himself to the question before the House, but the 



43 

chair as usual, held Mr. Smith to be in order, and he continued 
to speak till his own sense of propriety led him to close lest he 
prevent others from speaking. 

March 16th, the second deficiency bill being under considera- 
tion, and members having proposed various amendments for 
the completion of custom houses and marine hospitals and to 
add to the appropriation, Mr. Smith remarked that, though he 
was in favor of absolute free trade and the abolition of every 
custom house in the world as a matter of abstract principle, 
yet under existing circumstances, he favored the proposed 
custom house and hospital appropriations. Still he opposed 
tacking them onto the deficiency bill lest they might so load 
down that necessary bill as to cause it to fail. Such failure 
would seriously embarrass the administration, and he protested 
against any unreasonable or unjust hindrances being put in its 
way. He spoke not as a partisan but a patriot, and insisted Con- 
gress should furnish the executive department with means to 
pay its debts and carry on its proper work. One deficiency bill 
had failed through the jealousies of Whigs and Democrats. 
He hoped this would pass and the appropriation bill also. 

HIS TEMPERANCE PRINCIPLES. 

March 31st, in a discussion on the bill for building steam- 
ships, Mr. Smith sought to amend it by inserting the words 
M No intoxicating liquors shall ever be kept in said ships," but 
the chairman ruled his amendment not in order. Mr. Smith 
appealed, but the House sustained the chair. 

April 5th, 1854, Gerrit Smith made the great speech of his 
Congressional career on the bill to repeal what is called the 
Missouri compromise of 1820, by which compromise slavery 
should never go north of 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude. 
The bill allowed the white people of the territories to say 
whether or not black people should be held as slaves. 



44 

' ' Squatter sovereignty ' ' was the name given the doctrine of 
the bill, and, in a long and exhaustive speech Gerrit Smith 
dissected all the specious pleas put forth in its behalf and held 
up its absurdities to the ridicule and its enormities to the indig- 
nant gaze of the civilized world. He condemned the first 
compromise as guilty of tolerating oppression south of a certain 
line and denounced all compromise with wrong, and took for his 
motto " No slavery in Nebraska ; no slavery in the nation ; 
slavery an outlaw. ' ' 

Did space permit liberal quotations might be made from this 
truly great and very eloquent speech. It occupies more than 
100 pages in the published volume of his speeches in Congress 
and it seems he had but one interruption. When Gerrit Smith 
expressed his joy that the pro-slavery party was responsible 
for the present agitation a member said : "I do not admit 
that it is." 

" Strange!" exclaimed Mr. Smith, " Here is a movement 
for the immense extension of slavery. Of course it is not the 
work of the anti-slavery party. And if the honorable member 
who has just interrupted me is authorized to speak for the pro- 
slavery party it is not the work of that party either. I took it 
for granted that the pro-slavery party did it. But it seems it 
did not. It puts on the innocent air of a Macbeth, and looks 
me in the face, and exclaims : ' Thou canst not say I did it. ' 
(Laughter.) Well, if neither the anti-slavery party nor the 
pro-slavery party did it, who was it then, did it ? It follows 
necessarily that it must be the work of the Lord or the devil. 
(Laughter). But it cannot be the work of the Lord for the 
good book tells us where the spirit of the Lord is there is 
liberty, liberty not slavery. So this Nebraska business must 
be the work of the devil." (Great Laughter.) 

Naturally there were no more interruptions. In this great 
speech Mr. Smith showed not only the inherent injustice and 



45 

therefore the inherent lawlessness of slavery, but from history 
that it had never been legally established in this country, but 
simply tolerated, in defiance of both common and constitutional 
law, and vigorously demanded instead of its extension into 
Kansas and Nebraska, its complete and entire abolition in every 
State. Such doctrine seemed fanaticism then ! But after the 
bloody baptism of war, the South being devastated, a precious 
life taken from almost every family, North and South, and an 
enormous national debt saddled upon the nation, under which 
it will continue to struggle for many years to come, the nation 
gladly accepted eleven years later the measure of justice which, 
could it have been adopted in 1854 even by the North 
sharing the loss with the South, would have saved the blood, 
the treasure and the demoralization of one of the great wars of 
history. 

DEMANDED COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION. 

Gerrit Smith demanded compensated emancipation, and 
with Blihu Burritt held a convention in the city of Cleveland, 
O., in favor of that remedy for slavery, but neither North 
nor South would hear of it, till the North and South were bap- 
tized in blood. Mr. Smith usually went home and to bed at 
9 o'clock as he had done in his country home, rising at 5 in 
the morning. But when the Nebraska bill, to allow slavery to 
spread itself over the virgin soils of the territories was coming 
to a vote, he remained in his seat till after 11 o'clock and voted 
against it. Nevertheless, although he had made one of the 
great speeches of the session against it, — the most radical and 
thorough — many got the impression that he did not vote against 
it, but went home to bed as usual. He had, on principle, 
refused to ' ' filibuster ' ' against taking a vote on the bill, believ- 
ing under the circumstances, such methods not only wrong in 
principle, but useless in practice. 



4 6 

Certain communications in the New York Tribune having 
assumed that Mr. Smith did not vote against this bad bill, he 
took his friend, Horace Greeley, to task and a lively discussion 
ensued in the columns of that paper, the editor admitting that 
Mr. Smith's vote was duly recorded against it, but taking Gerrit 
Smith to task for his habit of leaving his seat at 9 o'clock, 
when, he urged, duty might require his presence at a later 
hour, stating, among other things, that many of the great 
crimes of the world were committed after 9 o'clock at night. 
Gerrit Smith insisted, with much force, that night sessions of 
Congress were unnecessary and hurtful, members being under 
the influence of strong drink oftener at night than in the day- 
time, and that care of his health required him to retire early. 

Besides the speeches I have noticed, he also made two speeches 
on the Meade claims, one against limiting grants of land to 
white persons, a strong speech against polygamy in Utah, a 
speech against government aid to the Pacific railroad, a speech 
in favor of the abolition of the postal system, a speech against 
Congress supplying the city of Washington with water, an 
elaborate speech on the Mexican treaty and the Monroe doc- 
trine, a speech for the harbor of Oswego, a speech in favor of 
prohibiting the liquor traffic in the city of Washington, a speech 
against providing intoxicating drinks in the navy, and other 
speeches of minor importance. 

As early as June he announced in a letter to his constituents 
his intention to resign his seat at the end of that session, and 
he did so resign. One important reason for resigning after the 
passage of the Nebraska bill, was that he might devote himself 
more thoroughly to making Kansas a free State. That Terri- 
tory at once became the battle ground, the coveted prize, for the 
possession of which freedom and slavery then engaged in a life 
and death conflict. The settlers, under the new law, were to 
decide whether Kansas should become a free or a slave State. 



47 



Both North and South aided people to become residents of the 
territory. Anti -slavery speeches and anti-slavery songs fired 
the hearts of the hardy sons of the free States to save the vir- 
gin soil from the contamination of slave labor, and southern 
men rushed in multitudes across the border from the slave State 
of Missouri, some to live there, and many, called "Border Ruf- 
fians," went there to force slavery upon the territory by crimi- 
nal means. Bloodshed and actual war now existed. Gerrit 
Smith, with other men of means and influence, notably the 
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, did what he could to send stalwart 
men with strong arms and brave hearts to defend by force when 
needful, the right of actual settlers to control the elections and 
prevent the "Border Ruffians" from setting up the reign of 
mob law and general lawlessness in which they seemed to 
delight. 



John Brown and his brave sons first came to the front in the 
Kansas struggle. Gerrit Smith aided him to make Kansas a 
free State, as he had before aided him to settle in the Adiron- 
dack mountains, and help the colored grantees of farms from 
Mr. Smith to become independent farmers. He knew John 
Brown well and trusted him heartily. But for the aid and 
encouragement of Gerrit Smith, John Brown and the free State 
men of Kansas would have had a harder task than they did 
have in successfully beating back the barbarous hordes that 
strove by all means, fair or foul, to blight with the curse of 
slave labor that fair land. After the fight was virtually won 
there, John Brown, having liberated and taken to Canada a 
company of slaves from Missouri, conceived the bold scheme of 
establishing a rendezvous for runaway slaves in the fastnesses 
of the Alleghany mountains in Maryland and Virginia, putting 
arms into their hands with which to defend their liberty and 




AIDED JOHN BROWN. 



4 8 

their lives, thus making slavery insecure and running his freed- 
men through to Canada as occasion might serve. The world 
knows how, with seventeen brave men, he seized the govern- 
ment arsenal at Harper's Ferry, terrorized the whole South, 
who dreaded servile insurrections with Brown for a leader, 
though he himself did not mean that, but rather rescue and 
deliverance, intending no harm to the masters unless they 
sought to stop his proteges in their path to freedom . 

It is also known how writings found in possession of John 
Brown included letters from Gerrit Smith, as well as from many 
other leading anti-slavery men of the North, and in the frenzied 
state of public sentiment in Virginia at that time, Henry A. 
Wise, an extreme pro-slavery man, being Governor, how 
impossible it would have been for any northern friend of 
Brown, if accused of conspiracy with the brave revolutionist, as 
he was deemed, to have a semblance of a fair trial. Several 
leading abolitionists, who knew more about Brown's plans than 
they cared to have shown in a Virginia court, temporarily went 
to Canada till the storm should be overpast. Gerrit Smith 
did not flee, though it was thought probable that he would 
be indicted by a Virginia grand jury, as an accomplice with 
Brown. The next Sunday after Brown was captured in the fall 
of 1859, I was at Mr. Smith's house at Peterboro, and met, at 
the dinner table, Charles B. Sedgwick, of Syracuse, a leading 
lawyer and friend of Mr. Smith, and he was consulted by me as 
to the probable action of Governor Morgan of this State, in the 
event of a requisition being made upon him by Governor Wise 
to surrender Gerrit Smith for trial in Virginia. His opinion 
was that such a requisition would not be complied with. But 
the people of Peterboro, and, indeed, of Madison county, were 
in no mood to risk the liberty and life of their beloved friend, 
and neighbor, and most distinguished citizen, to the tender mer- 
cies of a court and jury in Virginia. A military company was 



49 

organized at Peterboro and another at Oneida to protect Gerrit 
Smith against extradition for such a cause. Assassination by 
some fanatic or southern emissary was also feared by the friends 
of Mr. Smith, and his house was guarded. But no indictment 
was found. Vengeance, to the utmost, was wreaked upon John 
Brown and his men, but others were unmolested. 

But the sympathetic nature of Gerrit Smith suffered a terri- 
ble strain. He deeply loved Brown and his companions, and 
the horrible fate staring them in the face seemed to grieve Mr. 
Smith more than it did Brown himself. Besides, it was largely 
believed that John Brown sought to incite the slaves to murder 
their masters and commit all the nameless outrages which were 
popularly associated with servile insurrections and many sought 
to connect Gerrit Smith with such horrors. A committee of 
wealthy and aristocratic enemies of the anti-slavery cause pub- 
lished what claimed to be a history of the John Brown move- 
ment, in which they charged Mr. Smith with aiding violent and 
revolutionary measures, in connection with Brown. The health 
of Gerrit Smith had been poor for some time previous, and all 
these troubles, combined with his patriotic anxieties for his 
country drove sleep from him, so that for two weeks his nurse 
said he did not sleep more than one hour in the twenty-four, on 
an average. 



CHAPTER VI. 

But one result was possible, Gerrit Smith became temporarily 
insane. He afterwards told me of the hallucinations that pos- 
sessed him. He thought himself the wickedest man in the 
world. He thought he had indeed been guilty of seeking to 



5o 

incite the slaves to servile insurrection, to murder their masters 
and outrage southern women, as the aristocratic fifth avenue 
committee had charged. He imagined himself responsible for 
the attack on the Harper's Ferry government arsenal by John 
Brown, and the consequent arrest, imprisonment and certain 
death of his old and dear friend, and his noble sons and com- 
rades. 

The fact was, as I had it from his own lips both before and 
after his sickness and insane delusions, that he had not the least 
suspicion that Brown designed to attack the arsenal or any gov- 
ernment property, till the news came in the papers, and no 
one was more surprised than he. Captain Brown had always 
shown practical judgment in his military operations up to that 
time. Mr. Smith told me he had known that John Brown 
designed securing a position in the mountain fastnesses of the 
border slave states to which he could invite slaves escaping from 
bondage and from which ' ' city of refuge ' ' he could lead them 
safely to Canada as he had led one such company from Mis- 
souri. Mr. Smith also told me before he became insane as well 
as afterwards that for several years he had given John Brown 
all the money he had asked for, not requiring him to either tell 
what he wanted it for or to afterwards report what use he had 
made of it. Thus perfect was his confidence in both the integ- 
rity and wisdom of the hero and martyr. 

Now he became persuaded that he ought to go to Virginia 
and deliver himself up to die, if possible, in the place of Brown, 
and if his dear friend could not be saved by such vicarious sacri- 
fice to take his place by the side of the brave man, and die with 
him. Relief came to his tortured soul, after he had come to 
this decision. His family seemed to consent to his determina- 
tion and he started as he supposed, for Virginia, but was per- 
suaded to call on Dr. J. P. Gray at Utica, whom he knew, and 
he became at once a patient in the State Hospital for the Insane, 



5i 

of which Dr. Gray was Superintendent. At first he violently 
protested, but under treatment, sleep was induced and he 
became sane in a short time. Dr. Gray removed him into his 
own family, where he regained strength and in a few weeks 
returned to his home, though still unable to bear excitement, or 
to give his mind to either public or private affairs. His first 
published document after his recovery was a touching and 
beautiful letter to his old abolition and Christian friend Rev. 
William Goodell. In that letter he spoke of his insanity, 
praised the treatment he had received at Utica, and protested 
against the old superstitious conception of mental disorder and 
endorsed the modern scientific idea that it is simply disease of 
the brain. 

Not long after his restoration to health, he demanded a 
retraction of their libelous charges from the New York Com- 
mittee who had accused him of conspiring to excite insurrection 
of slaves and not getting a satisfactory reply he commenced an 
action for libel for large pecuniary damages. This brought the 
libelers to terms, and they were constrained to not only retract 
but to pay a handsome sum as costs, which he generously 
turned over to his counsel, the famous champion of the Uncon- 
stitutionality of Slavery, L,ysander Spooner. Not long after, 
The Chicago Tribune, a Republican paper, published an article 
charging or insinuating that Gerrit Smith feigned insanity to 
avoid prosecution for criminal complicity with John Brown. A 
libel suit in United States Court was the answer to this base 
attack. A commission to take testimony took the evidence of 
Dr. Gray, and other physicians at the Utica Hospital. Then 
the newspapers men asked terms of settlement and gladly pub- 
lished a full retraction, besides paying several thousand dollars, 
which again went to Mr. Smith's Anti-Slavery lawyer. This, I 
think was the end of such libels, and not only was truth vindi- 
cated, but would-be libelers taught a wholesome lesson. 



52 

Though he studied for the bar, in his youth, Gerrit Smith never 
practiced law for money. But his work in Court in a murder 
trial in his own county, where he defended a poor German 
whom he thought unjustly accused and in which trial he 
secured the acquittal of his client, though circumstances seemed 
very adverse, and the prosecuting attorney, David J. Mitchell, 
was a very able and successful criminal lawyer, showed what his 
standing at the bar might have been, had his life been devoted 
to the legal profession. On another occasion he received a dis- 
patch from Toronto, Canada, asking him to come to defend an 
escaped slave named Anderson whose return to Slavery was 
sought through a requisition from the Governor of Kentucky, 
on the ground that he was a fugitive from justice ; as in defend- 
ing himself from recapture when his master pursued the 
escaped bondsman to Ohio, he had killed the master and fled to 
Canada. At once Gerrit Smith ordered his horses, drove nine 
miles to Canastota, where he sent a dispatch urging that pro- 
ceedings be stayed till his arrival, pushed on as rapidly as 
possible from Buffalo and arrived in Toronto in time to make one 
of the greatest speeches of his life against the granting of the 
requisition. The case of course came under English law, and 
slavery had no standing under the British flag. The crime of 
murder if it had been committed, was committed in Ohio not 
Kentucky and the Governor of Ohio had made no requisition. 
The requisition from Kentucky, the home of the master, indi- 
cated an attempt to prostitute the criminal process to subserve 
the ends of slavery instead of to punish crime. But the advo- 
cate of Anderson urged that the treaty under which extradition 
was sought, did not require the extradition of slaves, but only 
of criminals, and Mr. Smith urged that the killing of one who 
sought to enslave Anderson, when as in this case, it was neces- 
sary in self defense, was not a crime, but justifiable homicide. 
He urged also that the Constitution of the United States did 



53 

not recognize the legality of slavery or require any one to sub- 
mit to it. Though hastily prepared, the argument, as well as 
the terrible earnestness and the overwhelming eloquence with 
which it was enforced, was perfectly irresistible and Gerrit 
Smith gained his cause triumphantly. 

The speech made a great impression on the public mind as 
well as on the tribunal to which it was addressed. It was not 
only widely circulated in Canada and in the United States, but 
made a sensation in England. The London Times in its com- 
ments on it, approved the Canadian decision, as being according 
to law, and styled Gerrit Smith the Robert Peel of America. 

In i860 came a turning point in American history. Slavery 
had been beaten back in Kansas, at the point of the bayonet 
as it were, as the slaveholders and their allies had sought to 
over-ride by brute force the honest expression of the legal 
voters, and, thanks to John Brown and his associates in Kansas, 
and to their resolute backing by the anti-slavery men and 
women of the North, they had been met and beaten with their 
own weapons of war. Then came the great political contest, 
the presidential election of 1860.,^' 

Most anti-slavery men votea for Abraham Lincoln, the 
candidate of the Republican party, while the opposition was 
divided between Breckenridge the candidate of the extreme pro- 
slavery men, Douglass, the "Squatter Sovereignty" 
champion, and Bell who sought to ignore the great issues of 
the day, and to be elected President on the platform, "The 
Union, the Constitution and the Enforcement of the Laws." 
Gerrit Smith and a few abolitionists could not, consistently 
with their views of duty, act with any of these parties. The 
Republican party recognized slavery as having a legal 
existence in the slave states. It did not, in the National plat- 
form that year, demand its abolition in the District of Colum- 
bia, or the repeal of the infamous fugitive slave law. Gerrit 



54 



Smith and those who agreed with him, hoped for the election of 
Lincoln, but, with their views of the Constitution, and the duty 
of the government towards slavery, they felt that they could 
not vote for him. A National Abolition Convention, at which 
but few states were represented, was held in Convention Hall, 
on East Genesee Street, in Syracuse, N. Y., the last of August 
i860, at which Gerrit Smith, though not present was 
nominated for President, as he had been in 1856, by the same 
party. But though its proceedings were reported in the papers, 
they caused little excitement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and 
Frederick Douglass were on the platform committee, also a 
President of a College in Ohio. Stephen S. Foster of 
Massachusetts took part in the proceedings. Little effort to 
get votes was put forth, and the vote was too small to affect 
the result. 

But Gerrit Smith and the few who stood with him insisted on 
the unconstitutionality of slavery everywhere in the country, 
and their votes were cast mainly as a protest against any com- 
promise with such an outrage on all just conceptions of law and 
government. I was one of the platform committee at the Syra- 
cuse Convention and had the honor of writing the platform, and 
also of being chairman of the finance committee, and in that 
capacity sent printed ballots to leading Abolitionists in all parts 
of New York State. Soon after that convention I was chosen 
pastor of the Peterboro church, of which Gerrit Smith was the 
leading member, and lived more than eight years as his neigh- 
bor and much of the time on terms of almost daily intercourse 
and intimacy. 

It is said " no man is a hero to his valet." But Gerrit Smith 
was to those in his employ and to those most closely associated 
with him, a model man ; great, noble and good in his common 
everyday life. He "was a father to the poor, and the cause 
that he knew not he searched out." The first winter of my 



55 

residence in Peterboro I went with him to a County Temperance 
Convention at Hamilton, the seat of Colgate University as it is 
now called, and also of a Baptist Theological Seminary. 

A Justice of the Supreme Court also lived in the village, and 
the magnates of the place took part in the temperance meeting. 
A resolution written by me was offered favoring the making of 
temperance an issue in town meetings, soon to occur, by voting 
for excise commissioners committed against giving liquor 
licenses. The large church was filled with all shades of tem- 
perance people, but most of them living not far from Hamilton 
and naturally to be influenced by the local leaders. The judge, 
a professor in the university, and the president of the university 
and theological seminary, all made strong and plausible speeches 
against the resolution, and against " carrying temperance into 
politics." The meeting seemed to sympathize with the eminent 
speakers, till the one great man of Madison County took the 
floor and every ear eagerly listened to hear Gerrit Smith, the 
people's favorite orator. With quiet, easy, dignified statement 
of facts and the principles involved, he roused the audience to 
an appreciation of the great interests at stake, showed the 
shallowness of the pleas of his opponents, and closed with a 
thrilling and eloquent appeal to the people of the county to not 
license the ''dram shop" — the center and source of physical 
and spiritual corruption and disease, misery and death, that was 
simply irresistible. The opposition was silenced, and the vote 
for the resolution was almost unanimous. 

When the war of the rebellion broke out Gerrit Smith saw, 
as with prophetic eye, "the beginning of the end." He then 
believed the downfall of slavery certain, and he at once devoted 
all his great powers to help the government crush the revolt at 
the South. He did not, like some anti-slavery men hold back 
and wait till Abraham Lincoln issued his emancipation 
proclamation, before he would aid him in putting down 



56 

rebellion against rightful authority. He deemed the revolt of 
the slaveholders utterly groundless and unreasonable, and to be 
suppressed at all hazards, whether slavery was abolished or not. 
He wished the National Government to at once strike at 
slavery, as the tap-root of the rebellion, and as a war measure ; 
but he was not one of those who would not do their own duty 
unless their views as to the best measures were at once adopted. 
He made many and effective speeches in aid of enlistments, 
gave largely of his means in support of war measures, issued 
earnest and eloquent appeals for a united country to uphold the 
hands of the great war-president, gave his only son as a 
soldier, and in every way rallied the people, so far as he had 
the power, to unite to save the Union and suppress insurrection. 

He told me of a very touching interview he had with Mr. 
Lincoln at the White House, soon after the death of the son of 
the President. Having himself, lost a promising son, Gerrit 
Smith could sympathize deeply with the bereaved father, and 
after giving utterance to his feelings in that regard, he 
ventured to express his profound sympathy with the sorrowful 
man in the position of tremendous responsibility in which he 
was placed. He told Mr. Lincoln no man in the world in his 
opinion, then sustained equal responsibility. Solemnly bowing 
his head Mr. Lincoln said " I believe it." Mr. Smith like many 
thousands at the North, eagerly awaited the issue of that mess- 
age of " Freedom to the Slave " which all expected, and many 
thought too long delayed, but Gerrit Smith learned to have 
great faith not only in the integrity but in the wisdom of the 
President. Early in the year 1862, Mr. Smith made one of his 
great war speeches in the Hall of the House of Representatives at 
Washington, in which speech he laid upon slavery the responsi- 
bility of being the cause of the war and showed there could be 
no lasting peace till it was wiped out. That speech was to be 
published in full, in the New York Tribune, and he wrote 



57 

to me from Washington, asking me to meet him in New York, 
at the home of his nephew and nieces (John Cochrane and 
his sisters) and aid him in preparing the manuscript and cor- 
recting the proofs, as he wrote the speech after its delivery. 

I went, and shall never forget the week I passed in the great 
city largely in his company. It was my first visit to New York ; 
and my good friend and parishioner took great pains to show 
me the objects of interest and to make my sojourn pleasant and 
profitable to me. We went together, on Sunday, to hear Henry 
Ward Beecher in his own church in Brooklyn, dined after ser- 
mon with Lewis Tappan, whom we met in church. He was also 
an eminent Abolitionist, and at that time Secretary of the Ameri- 
can Missionary Association, an anti-slavery organization. We 
called on several of Mr. Smith's cousins living in the two cities, 
visited Barnum's museum and the Astor Library, walked 
through Fifth avenue and Wall street, and parts of Broadway, 
and thus I saw New York, largely through the eyes of my dis- 
tinguished friend. As we walked through Wall street, the 
great financial centre of America, Gerrit Smith was talking to 
me of the wonderful life, character and achievements of John 
Brown, the hero and martyr who two years before perished so 
grandly on a Virginia scaffold, and in Fifth avenue he dwelt on 
the misery and unhappiness often found in sumptuous palaces 
when envy, pride and luxury take the places which love, humil- 
ity, industry and contentment ought to fill in every home. He 
sent his great-nephew, son of one of his nieces, with me to a 
first-class theatre, as he wished me to see all innocent phases of 
life in the great metropolis, and he thought some theatres not 
only innocent but beneficial. 

The town of Smithfield, in which Peterboro is the chief busi- 
ness and social centre, only had about 1,500 people, yet two 
companies of union soldiers were organized and largely officered 
there. The first, soon after the commencement of the war, 



58 

joined the 12th N. Y. Volunteers, and the second, which left for 
the front in the fall of 1862, formed a part of the 157th N. Y. 
Volunteer Regiment. The captain of the first, James Barnet, 
Jr., son of State Senator James Barnet, a near neighbor and 
friend of Gerrit Smith, fell, shot in the forehead, while gallantly 
leading his men to the charge at the battle of Antietam, and 
his funeral was an event in the quiet little village of Peter- 
boro. Gerrit Smith was the chief speaker, as all classes 
and conditions of people instinctively turned to him for 
consolation and help in times of trouble, and his noble 
eulogy of the dead was only equalled by his words of hope, 
sympathy and cheer to the living. When the 157th regiment 
left camp at Hamilton for the seat of war, Gerrit Smith and 
his friends entertained the whole regiment with a dinner on 
the village green, the weather being propitious, and after 
dinner the soldiers were formed in a hollow square and Mr. 
Smith made a brief address to them sitting on horseback, 
and placed one thousand dollars in the hands of the Colonel to 
be used in providing each soldier with necessary conveniences 
for frequent correspondence with his friends at home. 

But, while thus active and energetic in promoting public 
interests in matters relating to the war and the government, 
Gerrit Smith continued his labors in behalf of a more practical 
and spiritual idea of religion. He partly sympathized with the 
Society of Friends or Quakers. He did not believe a pastor 
should monopolize all the preaching services of the Church. 
He thought many conference meetings should be held, that each 
member of the congregation might speak his or her own view 
of the subject of the pastor's sermon. He sometimes preached 
a prepared sermon himself, and on such occasions a large num- 
ber of people would gather from many miles around and he 
always courted courteous and honest criticisms. He thought 
any religious teaching that could not bear criticism not worthy 



59 

of acceptance. He thought the Bible like other writings, must 
stand on its own merits, and he repudiated with scorn, the idea 
of proving Slavery right by quoting Bible texts. I once heard 
him asked in church, on Sunday, if he would not admit that 
slavery was right if convinced that the Bible sanctioned it. I 
shall never forget the electrifying effect of his reply. "No," 
said he in thrilling tones " I would see the Bible in hell, before I 
would consent to such a damnable dogma." Yet, he did not 
believe that the Bible sanctioned slavery. He used to say ' ' the 
Bible is the best book in the world, if rightly used. But, if it 
is used to enslave free thought and to protect great wrongs it 
then becomes the worst book in the world." 

He ridiculed the idea that all the marvelous stories in the 
Bible are literally true. He believed Jesus of Nazareth to be a 
perfect man and without sin ; that ' ' in Him dwelt all the ful- 
ness of the Godhead bodily," but he deemed Him the Son of 
Joseph as well as of Mary and called attention to the fact that 
the first chapter of the New Testament gives "the book of the 
generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abra- 
ham " and traces his genealogy, not through Mary, his mother, 
but through Joseph, his father. He thought the deification of 
Jesus had come about because of his transcendent character and 
wisdom ; that men thought He must be more than man on 
account of his so perfectly reflecting the Divine Nature. Faith 
in Christ in his view, is evinced solely by its possessor being 
Christ-like. No selfish, narrow, mean man, he insisted, could 
be a believer in Jesus. If he believed in Christ he would have 
the Christ spirit, live the Christ life ; a life of love and devotion 
to human welfare as did Jesus himself. The Church of Peter - 
boro used to gather around a literal table to celebrate the death 
of Christ, by partaking of the bread and unfermented " fruit of 
the vine ' ' as Jesus himself celebrated the passover with his dis- 
ciples. The pastor, or in his absence some one else, broke and 



6o 

passed the bread at one end of the table and some brother or 
sister poured and passed the " cup " at the other. 

Joshua R. Giddings, the stalwart champion of freedom in 
Congress for so many years, spoke from our pulpit one Sunday 
morning and came with us around the communion table in the 
afternoon. "In remembrance of me" was the subject of the 
conversation around the table and it seemed to us following the 
example of Jesus and his first disciples. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Gerrit Smith thought it entirely proper that women as well 
as men should become religious teachers. Hence in the early 
fifties he went to South Butler, in Wayne Co., N. Y. to take 
part in the ordination exercises, when Antoinette Brown 
became pastor of the Congregational Church of that place. I 
attended that meeting as an interested spectator. Rev. Luther 
Lee, D. D., probably the leading minister of the Wesley an 
denomination at that time, also took part in those exercises. 
While I was pastor at Peterboro, Mr. Lee took occasion, in the 
Wesleyan paper at Syracuse where he resided, to criticise, quite 
pointedly, some of the published discourses of Gerrit Smith on 
" The Religion of Reason," taking the usual ground that the 
Bible was the infallible Word of God, and that human beings 
have no right to reject any part of that book because in their 
view repugnant to reason. In other words, that reason might 
be used in determining the right interpretation of the Bible, but 
never in deciding whether or not any teaching of the Bible is 
true or false. Mr. Smith wrote to Mr. Lee stating that he had 



6i 



read Mr. Lee's criticisms ; that many people at Peterboro and in 
the vicinity agreed with his (Mr. Smith's) views, that he wished 
to be set right if he was in error, and only desired that truth 
should prevail, and therefore invited the reverend doctor to 
come to Peterboro, when most convenient io himself, and 
preach morning and evening on Sunday at our church, to show 
us our errors if he could do so, at the same time informing him 
that an opportunity would be given, as was the custom in our 
meetings, for comments by the hearers, upon Mr. Lee's sermons. 
He also stated that he would pay Mr. Lee twenty dollars. The 
invitation was accepted and Mr. Charles Merrick, an Abolition 
brother of both Mr. Lee and Mr. Smith, came with Mr. Lee, 
and both were entertained by Gerrit Smith. The sermons and 
the reviews of them attracted large audiences, and resulted in a 
better understanding of the points of difference, and of agree- 
ment. But the friendship and confidence so long existing 
between the two honest and earnest men, was in no wise dimin- 
ished. Mr. Lee after Mr. Smith's review of the evening ser- 
mon, was led to acknowledge that his belief in the infallibility 
of the Bible was the result of a process of reasoning, and Mr. 
Smith then said his disbelief in such infallibility was because his 
reasoning demanded such a conclusion. Therefore, he urged 
difference of opinion on that point must not be a reason for dis- 
fellowshipping one another as Christian men, and this position 
the reverend doctor seemed to assent to. Discussions of differ- 
ences of religious belief in our church very rarely led to any 
unkind words or feelings. This result was due, very largely, to 
the influence of Gerrit Smith. He was so filled with Christian 
love and sympathy himself, that his example influenced others. 

Hon. George W. Julian of Indiana, a leading member of Con- 
gress, visited Mr. Smith during the war, and many prominent 
gentlemen of Peterboro were invited to breakfast with him and 
enjoy a visit with the distinguished guest. At another time I 



62 



met and conversed with, at Mr. Smith's home, William Lloyd 
Garrison, who, until the slaveholders seceded, had been the 
leader of the disunion as Garrisonian Abolitionists ; but who 
now heartily sympathized with Gerrit Smith in upholding 
Abraham Lincoln in putting down the rebellion and slavery, 
its cause. In the latter part of the war, Mr. Smith's only son 
being in the Union army before Petersburg, Va., the command- 
ing officer of the regiment during a hotly contested battle, 
wished to send a message a mile away, to another officer on the 
field, and, as the messenger must be exposed to the enemy's fire 
the whole distance, hardly felt willing to order any one on such 
a dangerous errand, and called for Volunteers. Green Smith 
volunteered, ran at full speed the whole distance, delivered his 
dispatch, and fell down exhausted as soon as his mission was 
ended ; but soon recovered himself as he was a trained athlete 
and accustomed to hardship. 

At the close of the war came the murder of President Lin- 
coln, and a spirit of revenge was aroused in many minds, as 
they thought southern leaders responsible. But Gerrit Smith 
was incapable of such suspicions, and his large heart went out 
in sympathy with the defeated Confederates. He sternly 
opposed a policy of revenge, went to Virginia with Horace 
Greeley to sign the bail bonds of Jefferson Davis, that the rebel 
chief might be at liberty until the 'government was ready to try 
him. He was never brought to trial, and Gerrit Smith's con- 
tention that, after having treated the rebels as belligerents, we 
had no right to try any of them for treason, was practically, if 
not theoretically, admitted by the government. But he insisted 
on full protection to the emancipated slaves, as well as universal 
amnesty to those lately in rebellion. Though they were 
ignorant, and all unused to self-government, he saw no other 
way but to give the freedmen the ballot for their own protection 
and also that their friends in the North might have their assist- 



63 

ance. He thought, too, the white people of the South would be 
more interested in the education of the blacks, if the lately 
enslaved class were voters, than they would otherwise be, and 
he was anxious for the general elevation of these "wards of the 
nation." 

In 1869, Mr. Smith went to Chicago to unite with other lead- 
ing temperance men to organize what he wished to call an 
"Anti-Dramshop" party. With his efficient aid the Republi- 
can party had elected General Grant president in the previous 
year, and he thought the legitimate results of the war substan- 
tially secured, and that the next great reform to be effected was 
the suppression of the saloon system. But he disagreed with 
the Prohibition party, which took ground not only against the 
dramshop but against the manufacture, importation and sale of 
all intoxicating drinks. He came home and organized the 
Anti-Dramshop party in the state of New York, which, in 1872, 
perished when he left it to support General Grant again for 
president. He feared the accession to power of the Democratic 
party, though it had endorsed the liberal Republican plat- 
form, and also its nominations of Horace Greeley for president 
and B. Gratz Brown for vice-president. Here, again, he was 
obliged to not only part company with many old friends, Charles 
Sumner among the rest, and oppose Horace Greeley's nomina- 
tion, but to give up the infant temperance party which he had 
recently founded. Still, all who knew him were satisfied that 
he acted from the most noble motives, and many afterwards 
approved his judgment, who, at the time, thought him mistaken. 
He was an honored member of the National Convention of the 
Republican party that year, which met at Philadelphia, and did 
what he could to secure the election of its candidates. 

But his health would not allow any more severe and exhaust- 
ing labors. He even gave up holding regular meetings in the 
little church at Peterboro, in whose success he had always taken 



6 4 

such a lively interest. While I was pastor of that church Mr. 
Smith aided the Methodist people to build a house of worship 
in the village, as they had no church edifice until that time, and 
had been permitted to use our meeting house free of charge 
occasionally, the greart-hearted Christian saying, " I would be 
glad to have everybody attend our church. But all will not do 
so, and I had much rather they would attend a Methodist church 
than go to a saloon on Sunday." He told me he had given 
money to aid in building Catholic churches in places where he 
had landed property, as he considered Catholic churches a bene- 
fit to those who attended them. His wife was a believer in what 
are called spiritual manifestations, and though he could not 
agree with her views in that respect he always treated them 
with charity and respect, and made no objection to her being vis- 
ited by mediums and champions of her faith. On one occasion 
a celebrated ' ' rapping ' ' medium, one of the original Fox sis- 
ters, gave an illustration of her mediumship in the church 
building, of which Mr. Smith was himself the owner. His 
love for his wife was to the end of his life, as hearty and beauti- 
ful as were all his domestic relations. In the latter years of his 
life, there being no pastor at the "Free Church," and Mr. 
Smith not feeling able to conduct conference meetings himself, 
he attended the Methodist church in the village, and became 
Superintendent of the Sunday School, though neither uniting 
with that church, nor giving up any of the ideas which but a 
few years before some bigoted and narrow-minded people had 
called "infidel." 

While living at Peterboro I had an entirely friendly 
conversation with a priest of the Catholic Church in a vil- 
lage not far away, in which the priest spoke of Gerrit Smith 
as being not only a good but a great man ; saying among other 
things, ' ' Gerrit Smith is too great a man to be a Protestant. 
He must either be a Catholic or an Infidel." 



65 

The Pastor of the M. E. Church at Peterboro at the time 
Mr. Smith attended that Church and Superintended the Sunday 
School, took occasion in a highly eulogistic article in the 
official paper of that church, not long after Mr. Smith's death, 
to say that in his last days Gerrit Smith had come back to the 
old faith of his early life. I saw the article, believed the good 
pastor mistaken, and on a visit to Peterboro the next summer 
learned from those nearest to the departed saint that the clergy- 
man totally misapprehended Gerrit Smith's position, and the 
same paper, whose editor was my friend, had the fairness and 
courtesy to publish my correction. Gerrit Smith believed in 
God, but he thought the Bible, though full of wisdom and 
truth, was, like all human productions, not perfect. He 
believed in Christ, as being "God manifest in the flesh," but 
not God Himself. He was never a scoffer at Religion, not 
even at what he deemed distorted and utterly inadequate con- 
ceptions of religion. 

The last time I saw Gerrit Smith alive was at Syracuse, July 
4th, 1874. He delivered an oration on Hanover Square (now 
Veteran Park), on behalf of Cuba. He had long advocated the 
peaceful acquisition of that island, even while slavery existed 
both in this country and in Cuba, foreseeing the speedy end of 
that "peculiar institution" both here and there. On this 
occasion, the Mayor of the city, Hon. William J. Wallace, now 
a Judge of the United States Circuit Court, presided and intro- 
duced Mr. Smith to the large audience. The people of 
Syracuse, its leading and best citizens especially, were proud of 
Gerrit Smith, whose home for most of his life had been only 
about thirty miles away, and received him with every mark of 
attention and respect. But his old power as an orator was 
gone. His glorious voice, which, earlier in life, rang out in 
eloquent denunciation of oppression and wrong, and which had 
great volume and power besides being finely modulated and 



66 



full of music, had now lost its best qualities, though it was 
still capable of being heard to quite a distance, even in the 
open air. But, for many years before his death, he avoided, as 
far as practicable, speaking in the evening or indeed any 
excitement towards bed-time, as he would often lose a night's 
sleep unless he observed great caution in that regard. 

Mr. Smith's death occurred the 27th of December, 1874, in 
the city of New York. He went to spend the holiday time 
with his nephew and nieces, and the day after his arrival 
became suddenly helpless and apparently unconscious, remain- 
ing in that state for more than two days and nights before life 
was extinct. The remains were brought to Peterboro and 
buried in the village cemetery beside those of his first wife and 
of his father, mother and two brothers. It was my privilege 
to be present, with my little ten-year old son, at the funeral in 
Peterboro, and to witness the heart-felt grief of the many friends 
and neighbors who gathered, spite of the extremely cold 
weather, to pay the last tributes of respect and love to a dearly 
loved friend and benefactor. Ex. -Judge Foster, himself an old 
man drove many miles, with the mercury many degrees below 
zero, having ridden in a sleigh from Rome that morning, to be 
present. Hon. C. B. Sedgwick, from Syracuse, and many 
others from abroad testified their sense of loss by being in 
attendance. Rev. S. R. Calthrop of Syracuse was the 
officiating minister. 

About three months later Mrs. Smith, the companion of so 
many years, followed her noble husband to the grave, and was 
buried beside him she loved so well in life. I was also 
present at the simple services at her funeral and at both funerals 
remarked the absence of the usual wearing of black, and remem- 
bered that Gerrit Smith did not entertain the gloomy views in 
regard to death and a future life which were formerly so 
common. He did not regard death as simply the penalty of sin. 



67 

He thought premature death the result mauy times of violated 
physical law, but he believed death at the end of a long and 
well spent life, entirely natural and in harmony with the divine 
plan. In speaking at the funerals of young persons it was 
his custom to call attention to prevalent errors in regard to 
death, as being a mysterious dispensation of Providence, and to 
incite his hearers to study the causes of health and sickness, and 
obey the laws of our being, that we might avoid the penalty of 
our ignorant infractions of those laws. He hoped for a future 
life ; but he utterly discarded the idea that any of our fellow- 
beings would be eternally miserable. Such an idea was to 
him directly in conflict with the conception of God as the father 
and friend of man. But he scouted the idea that we are to pass 
judgment upon one another, or that the Heavenly Father will 
pass judgment upon us, on account of either our belief or dis- 
belief in dogmas of creed and doctrine. He used to say no 
finite being could know the manner or method of the Divine 
existence. Whether the Godhead consisted of one person, or 
three persons was beyond our powers to determine. And he 
deemed the denial of Christian fellowship to a Christ-like man 
or woman because of supposed error in creed the result of pre- 
sumption and intolerance. 

Gerrit Smith was a Christian, in that he was like the man 
Jesus of Nazareth, whom we call the Christ. Andrew D. White 
our distinguished representative to Germany said, in my hear- 
ing at the grave of Samuel J. May, "He was the most Christian 
man I ever knew." Mr. May was a Unitarian, and Mr. White 
an Episcopalian. But such a man as A. D. White judges men, 
not at all by their creeds, but solely by their character, as dem- 
onstrated in their lives. Mr. White loved and honored Gerrit 
Smith also, as I found soon after coming to Syracuse in a con- 
versation with him about the great Abolitionist, but he did not 
know him as well as he did Mr. May. Gerrit Smith was a 



68 



pioneer in the cause of Christian Union. He sought to make 
character as shown in the life, the sole basis of Church mem- 
bership. No man in his opinion can say certain dogmas are 
essential to Christian character. Life, not dogma, determines 
what is the real character. Jesus would sooner fellowship an 
" infidel " like Ingersoll, with a loving heart, than the most 
orthodox believer without such love. A son of Bishop Hunt- 
ington, himself an honored and devoted minister of the Episco- 
pal Church, once said in my hearing that he could fellowship as 
"true believers," some who call themselves "Atheists," but 
who believe in justice, love and truth and earnestly seek to 
know and do what is right and just. 

Gerrit Smith was a truly liberal man. He recognized good- 
ness and virtue among the devotees of all faiths, and those of 
no faith. Had he been a man of less courage, of more tempor- 
izing conscience, had he sought the applause of men, and to 
gain their votes by catering to their prejudices, and pandering 
to their low ideas of right and duty, had he, in a word, been 
less a man, a patriot and a statesman, and more of a time-serv- 
ing politician, I know of no position in State or National Gov- 
ernment to which he might not reasonably have aspired. His 
brief term in Congress showed his broad and progressive states- 
manship, and his capacity to adapt himself to the duties 
incumbent upon him in an untried vocation. He was pre- 
eminently a great man. Great in mental powers, and also great 
in his aims and purposes in life. He lived for great, for high 
and noble ends. Nothing low, mean or base entered into his 
composition. He was incapable of a contemptible action. 
Mistaken he doubtless was, in many things. Who, with his 
grasp of thought, thinking as he did, for himself, on a great 
variety of subjects, could always be right? I once heard 
Henry Ward Beecher, speaking of the great mistake of John 
Brown say, " If you have a pint cup of milk to carry across the 



6 9 

street, you maybe able to doit and not spill a drop. But," 
spreading out his arms, "if you have a great brimming bowl 
full, you may spill a little." But it may be said of Gerrit 
Smith as was said of one of Goldsmith's characters, 
"And e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side." 
Gerrit Smith had many of the traits of the true martyr. 
Indeed his life, after he became an Abolitionist, was one long 
martyrdom. He could say, as did Paul, the apostle, "I die 
daily." He denied himself the selfish gratifications that 
wealth, education and social position allowed him, that he might 
serve his fellow-men and his God. Even William Lloyd Garri- 
son, who at one time seemed to insist that voting Abolutionists, 
like Gerrit Smith, could not be true to the cause of the slave, 
wrote, after his decease, words of warm appreciation of the 
great defender of the Constitution against the charge of being a 
pro-slavery document. He said, " Truly in the Peterboro phil- 
anthropist and reformer was seen 

1 A combination and a form indeed 
Where every god did set his seal, 
To give the world assurance of a man.' " 



/ 



Chicago Times. — Monday, Jan. nth, 1875. 
Rev. Robert Collyer pays a glowing tribute to the memory 
of Gerrit Smith, and holds that if any saints are to be 
added to the calendar, Gerrit Smith ought to be canonized. 



The Philanthropist 

A EULOGY UPON GERRIT SMITH BY REV. ROBERT COIXYER. 

In lieu of a sermon, the Rev. Robert Colly er delivered a eulogy 
upon Gerrit Smith, the philanthropist, at Unity Church yes- 
terday morning. He took as his text ; " Mark the perfect man, 
and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." — 
Ps. 37:37- 

I think the time will come when we shall begin to make a 
calendar of the saints of this world, which will blend naturally 
with that of our statesmen, patriots, soldiers, inventors, and 
writers of great books, in our almanacs and histories, and be 
counted as essential an element in our greatness and glory as 
the greatest and best besides. I imagine also that when this is 
done, those who live to see it will find by some sure instinct 
born of our new life, our calendar will differ widely from that 
which has gradually come to us out of the old times. It will be 
a record of those who have won distinction for the breadth as 
well as for the loftiness of their religious character, who have 
lived in the world rather than above it, and true to the whole 
truth, rather than to some special word of it, have made their 
mark as pure and holy men through their identity with us in all 
true ways, rather than through isolation from us in any way ; 



7i 

of whose devoutness we shall hear but little. And while we 
hear a great deal about their devotion, while their religious ser- 
vices will not be in word, but in deed and truth, w r e shall find 
perhaps that they rather grudge the time spent on their own 
account in communion with heaven, which might be turned to 
a better account among the stern realities of life, and cared but 
little about making their own calling and election sure, while 
there was another man in the world they could pluck as a brand 
from the burning, and whose holiness was simply and entirely 
wholeness, according to the measure of their manhood, touch 
them where you will. 

And when that time comes, I think my friend Gerrit Smith 
will stand as good a chance of canonization in this new order of 
saints as any man of our generation. For if we are to measure 
him by such a standard of goodness as this I have pointed out, 
he has left no better man behind him. So I want to touch some 
thoughts this morning that have come to me in connection with 
his life and character as my true latter day saint, to note : 

First, His Nature — Second, His Quality — Third, His Word — 
Fourth, The Conclusion. 

I. And to say, first : That, in his nature he seems to have 
been one of the most fortunate of men, as I suspect they will 
all be inscribed in the new calendar, for we shall have to see 
that goodness as certainly as genius is in its primal essence a 
gift of God, and in this sense is not of works lest any man 
should boast ; and that, while in the old order of saints the 
body was of no account, and was steadily treated as a thing to 
be despised, to be scorched and frozen, to be starved and 
flogged, trailed through the mire and tortured with hair cloth 
and spikes, and made to sit up nights when it ought to be 
asleep, and have all the holy tides of nature damned up, and 
damned so that the soul might prosper and God might be 
glorified, my latter day saint was in all things the contradiction 



72 

to this ugly and evil conception of the truest life, so far as 
such a life rises out of the body. Paul speaks of a glorious 
body as an expectation, Gerrit Smith had one as a possession. 
I suppose they have something better in heaven, and may have 
on the earth, in some far future. We have a right to expect 
that, when we notice what an advance we have made since the 
Stone age ; but in comparison with the great majority of his 
fellow men, he was far in advance of his age in this respect. 
Tall, wide, deep, close-knitted, and clean, well-bred, well 
fed, well-tempered, with all the elements that were akin to it 
from the first day to the last, honored and reverenced as the 
temple of the Holy Ghost. My friend's natural organiza- 
tion was so fine and strong that I never knew a man 
who would have poured out his own shame more shamefully, 
had he turned the magnificent organization to vile uses ; for 
in this measure he was predestined and called to be a saint from 
the foundation of the world, as few men are we can ever 
meet. He ranks in this respect with Washington and Goethe, 
and Humboldt, and Thomas Chalmers. 

II. But we have to see, secondly, that this is only the first 
condition of a holy life, or, in other words, that my nature waits 
on my quality ; and singular as this gift of God was, in and to 
my friend, he was only one of a good many we may have 
known, or heard of, who have failed after all to be pure and 
good men, not because God had failed to do his part but 
because they failed to do theirs. In this second question of 
quality, indeed I do not know where to draw the line. I 
do not like to think that in this original endowment of a clean, 
whole, well-balanced organization, I am much behind Gerrit 
Smith, and yet I have no idea that I have done as well by com- 
parison, and I know other men of almost or quite an equal 
endowment who, in all charity and love, I have to say, can lay 
no such claim to perfection as he might, if his genuine sim- 



73 

plicity had permitted him to harbor such a thought. For here 
is one of the few men I ever knew or heard of, for whom I 
durst pledge my soul now and forever, that in his youth and 
early prime, he never sowed a single handful of wild oats. 
The son of one of the richest men in the first state in the 
Union, with as keen an appetite for all that seems pleasant and 
entrancing to our youth and early manhood as any young man 
that was ever born into this world, and with the singular and 
terrible temptations that always beset the sons of very rich 
men, fighting for him on all sides. I venture to say, from 
what I know of him that there never was a cleaner man and a 
purer on the American continent than Gerrit Smith. I 
seriously doubt whether he knew the difference between beer 
and Burgundy, between whiskey and sauterne, between hash- 
eesh and tobacco, between champagne and cider, and I had 
nearly said between tea and coffee ; while in the more delicate 
reaches of his life, where I may not follow him, I still repeat 
my conviction, founded indeed only on an instinct which I think 
I possess, but cannot describe, that he was as pure and clean 
as any saint that ever trod God's earth. 

Permit me to say this, for the sake of the young men in my 
church who may be tempted in all ways as he was, and for the 
sake of some grand rich natures that hold their own so that the 
angels bless them clean on to their latter prime, and then they 
go to the pit, when the shining ones are making out their 
papers for the skies. Here was a man who had a peerless 
chance of eating and drinking his way into his grave, of short- 
ening his days by lengthening his nights; but from 17 to 77, 
Gerrit Smith heard that voice we all hear, ' 1 Let thy garments 
be always white." God whispered to him what he whispers to 
you and me, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of Life." Do not, I beg you, think it was easy 
sailing down a placid river for him, and for us a terrible fight 



74 

against the rapids. It was a man on duty, guarding a soul, it 
was a man against a demon, and the man won the day. For 
Gerrit Smith heard that voice and answered, c< I will try," and 
in real trying he found the secret of his power to be a whole 
true man. He saw the toad within the exquisite seeming, and 
needed no angel to touch it with his spear. His appetite for 
illusions was full and strong and he would have made a marvel- 
ous prodigal son. 

And this quality of purity is the more striking, because it 
links into another equally remarkable, and that was his inde- 
pendence. He would call no man master in the conduct of his 
life. A religious man in the very grain of his nature, he was 
more free from superstition than Voltaire, and for that reason 
more entirely true in searching for the truth. He found the 
truth he sought for in no church or creed. He tried in Peter- 
boro to form a sort of church, which would be as large as his 
idea of religious freedom, but I think, after all, it was very 
much as if an eagle should try to have a cage as wide and high 
as his wings could go, and then found that though he might not 
want to go outside the cage, the trouble lay in the feeling that 
if he wanted to soar higher he might not be able, but would 
have to beat his wings against the bars. And I want to 
emphasize this perfect freedom for two reasons. The first is, 
that in the old idea of a saint, it has no place, neither has it a 
place in the modern idea of a saint, so far as we allow canon- 
ization in the Protestant communion. Your most holy man is 
always remarkable for his perfect subjection to his church. He 
is never a freethinker outside her lines; his grand quality is self- 
abnegation ; he goes where she bids him, and his holiness is in 
the measure of his wholeness as a churchman. In this respect 
then, Gerrit Smith was no saint. His grand quality in 
religious thought and life was not self-abnegation but self-asser- 
tion. His nature was so large, so sincere and so free in that 



75 

respect, that any mere church or creed of man got lost in it, 
instead of his getting lost in the church or creed. And the 
second reason why I mention with emphasis this free mind of 
my saint is, that we may see how it was an intimate element in 
that pure life I have noted, as the first qualit3 T of his manhood. 
For it is always the implied, and now and then the outspoken, 
reproach of those who stand by the older, and shall I say, the 
narrower faith, that these freethinkers are free livers, that 
being a law unto themselves they become lawless, and make 
their liberty sooner or later a cloak for licentiousness, and find- 
ing themselves in no respect bound by the feeling of the notable 
young man, who said he should have had a splendid time in 
Paris if he had not got religion before he left home. The infer- 
ence is, that as the freethinker has not got what they are 
pleased to call religion, he has what he calls a splendid time. I 
think it is time to call this charge into court ; and it can never 
be done to a surer purpose than by bringing it face to face with 
a man like Gerrit Smith, and shaming it down in that high, pure 
presence standing now fast by the throne of God. Here is a 
man who will challenge the world at once as a freethinker and 
a pure liver, who had only a regard to a commandment written 
on his own heart, and on the heart of the universe, who could 
only receive the very Sermon on the Mount in a free spirit ; 
who had no other purpose in this world as a religious thinker 
than, 

' ' To search through all he felt and saw, 
The springs of life, the depths of awe, 
And reach the law within the law." 

And this was the fruit of it, as pure and clean a piece of man- 
hood as ever trod the earth. Now, I say this was the legiti- 
mate result of his freedom, and that a like freedom in a man of 
this make will always give you this result. We may differ in 
minor things ; my meat may be Gerrit Smith's poison, but 



76 

within the grand lines of essential integrity that the Christ 
himself would have observed, the true freethinker, if he is also 
a religious thinker, lives and moves and has his being. I do 
not question the worth of other ways to those who need them, 
and I think vast numbers do need them. When we cannot keep 
the peace of God which passeth understanding without giving 
bonds, why then, we must give bonds ; but do not mistake this 
for something better than that service of God which is perfect 
freedom. 

For this was the last secret of Gerrit Smith's purity and 
truth as a man, that with his perfect freedon there was blended 
a perfect reverence and devoutness of heart, like that of Gov- 
ernor Andrew. Before any man and all men he was Gerrit 
Smith ; before God he was a little child. Holding himself free 
to read his Bible as he would any other book, he found in its 
pages what no other book in the world could give him. It was 
God's spell to him ; he had it not in his lips but in his heart. 
Scorning all prayer by rote and rule, he was a man of 
prayer who spoke with God as a man speaketh with his 
friend, and as he prayed he sang, because some great throb 
of thanksgiving could only find an adequate utterance in 
a psalm. It was father and child with him down to sunrise on 
the 27th of December, 1874, when the angel of death came to 
bear him into the rest that remains, and found him thanking 
God for a good night's rest. 

III. Here it is again, in the third place, that we touch the 
secret of his work. A man of no special genius, as a thinker, 
his heart was so large and so true that its quality got into his 
brain, and created through his deed that which some men 
bring with them. A Presbyterian by education, and early pre- 
ference, he found that great church on the side of the slave- 
holder against the slave, and then, mother church as she was to 
him, he left his home for the prison where the poor image of 



77 



Christ lay helpless, and never left him until he had done what 
one man might do to set him free. A peaceful man, and easy 
to be entreated in all matters that did not involve a principle, 
for the sake of one principle after another he plunged into such 
perpetual warfare that use became a second nature ; so that it 
was one of the things I could always count on, when any great 
question was up before the Nation, to receive a long envelope 
addressed in the well-known hand, out of which I would pull his 
quick words, the last of which on the present political outbreak 
came to me within a week of his death. A peace man, as well 
as a peaceable, when he found there was no help for us any 
longer but in the awful ordeal of battle, battle it was, and all 
his theories went down the wind, to be collected and rear- 
ranged when the storm was over. Yet so sad was the havoc, 
the slaughter made with nature, that it is hard to say whether 
like good Mr. Greeley, he would not have taken less than the 
full price of peace, for this white soul had its limitations on the 
side of pity and relenting. 

Inheriting a fortune in land, larger I presume than that of 
any other man in our day in America, and so placed in his inter- 
ests on the side of a most baleful and dangerous monopoly, he 
saw the danger and denounced it, giving it no quarter, and as a 
pledge of his sincerity gave away more than 200,000 acres 
in homesteads of 50 acres each, giving those the first chance 
to whom we were in the habit of giving the last. Recognizing 
the almost immortal worth to a Nation like ours of the higher 
ranges of education, he poured out his wealth on such schools 
as he thought most worthy, with what it would be an insult to 
his memory to call a princely generosity, as princes go now-a- 
days, and still seemed to be watching for a good place to hide 
some more. Always open to a tender pity, sometimes, I fear, 
even to a fault, it was still a piece of his religion to challenge the 
best there was left in a man, and help him to help himself. He 




78 

would not undermine a manhood, if he could help it, by his 
bounty ; and so if there was any hope left, he said to the poor 
man who came to ask his bounty, "Go work in my vineyard, 
and I will give you that slice in fee simple for doing it ; just as 
much as you can use well you shall possess." There is where 
I find his genius. That is the clear original stroke. He set 
men to work his land on shares, and his share was the satisfac- 
tion of seeing them self-supporting and self-respecting heads of 
families. 

This is Gerrit Smith's epic, the word which will never die 
while America has a name and a place in the world. It is the 
final element in my saint of the new order. The good men of 
the old kind were perpetually saying to impotent folk, ' ' What 
can I do for you? I will give you my coat, my crust, my life, 
asking for nothing again, except your promise that you will try 
to get into heaven," but this good man of the new time said, 
"Stretchout thine hand; take up thy bed and walk; go to 
thine own house and say nothing more about it, but take right 
hold ; don't even stop to say thank you, Master ; I will take 
that in straight furrows and children going to school ; in snug 
homesteads and clean door yards, in a drink of the water from 
your well and a cart-house apple when I happen round." 

That such a man should see John Brown and take his measure 
before any other man in the world, and cleave to him as Jona- 
than to David, and minister to him and sorrow for him with 
such heart-breaking anguish that his very soul for a season 
passed into a total eclipse, is but the perfect culmination of a 
life so singularly noble and true. 

Ivooking over this nature through the century, it is hard to 
find another man worthy of that great place, of the glory of it, 
and the sorrow, the momentary condemnation, and then the 
applause which must deepen and widen through the centuries. 
It is one of the proudest recollections of my life that I was one 



79 

of no great crowd which met in this city on the night when 
John Brown was hung, to say my poor word of thanks that such 
a man should have come forth at such a crisis to make the blood 
of the martyr the seed of the church. I cannot after all these 
years lay a tribute on the grave of his good and dear friend with 
this white blossom to his memory plucked out. 

IV. And now, last of all, what is the conclusion ? Is there 
not a story in our annals of two men, who were among the fore- 
most in the Declaration of Independence, living full fifty years 
more, clear on to the year of Jubilee, and then on that very day 
being caught up to God ? It is in some such harmony my great, 
good friend, great because of his goodness, dies, 77 years of age, 
his three score years and ten, and a Sabbath of years over ; with 
his work done up to date, with the Christmas gladness in his 
heart, with thousands of poor folk in this world to whom it was 
a happier Christmas than it could have been but for his vast 
bounty, reaching back through so many years. In the metrop- 
olis of the land he loved with his whole heart, in the morning 
light, while he was thanking God for a good night's rest, true 
wife and true husband together to the last in their perfect 
moments, the angel of death came, and as such a man would 
love to die, he died in perfect peace and satisfied. 

Now and then we do seem to hear the bells of heaven chiming 
audibly through the turmoil of this lower life ; there is such a 
sound to me in this blending of life into death, and of death 
into life. It was of all things fitting that Gerrit Smith should 
depart at holytide when the year was in the fresh morning, free 
from pain, and with the faithful tender hands to close his eyes. 
We can none of us hope to match his bounty. We may match 
his generosity, for that is in the measure of our means. Some 
of us may feel, perhaps, that we have no such a manhood before 
us, but if we will but have faith that we have such a manhood 
before us, we need not despair. I urge upon you young men 



8o 



especially his grand example. You can each in your degree 
touch an equal purity and nobility. His Father is your Father, 
his God your God, that Christ he followed with steadfast steps, 
still walks the world, watching for such men to come to Him 
that they may sit down with Him on His throne. Your bodies 
are the temple of the Holy Ghost. You also can be free and 
simple and devout as he was, and self-forgetful, while still you 
hold your own against the world, and then, whether sooner or 
later death may come, you will have human hearts to love you 
and to cherish your memory long after you have passed into the 
everlasting life. 



Gerrit Smith 

By Charles A. Hammond 



3 



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Gerrit Smit, 
party up to 
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)lely in Cqiife 
regalations 
to the Constit., 
orios were jq^ 
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i Government 
judicial power, 
j territories, a 
on was vendei^ j 
be by the Kan j 
•pie all power , 
tting the same 
ded by &. A. E 
sreignty." Nor, 
to stand erect 
aciple, they sa 1 
.ajoriiy are in 
here slavery mi 
imocrats sioou 
gee Mr. Buchan 
j, which says 
n Kansas, or th 
jgt pome of wh 
any an hour li 
is beat quick an< 
erous events in 
with breathless 
ing to the noble 
^ood work and i 
forth his nobles 
se of liberty-— ai 
ed so largely to 
ow Mr. Greely & 
mith never was a 
t to iiepubiican 
jewel— but "if * 
say, Slavery, a 
leaders, not the 
nth is not entitle* 
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ipton Constitution 
nd go to catching 
E^uua r 
agus 2,000 for libei 

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8 ." lot the Republican leaders and himself. 
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"o ( # sentiraent of outraged Justice so fervently exci- 
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Smith and against the fusionists in Orleans, 
then the prophets are mistaken. Gentlemen, 
you mad 3 a blunder this time. You have sown 
dragons teeth, and you, will find it so ere you see 
the end of that day's work. 



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iV- 



PURCHASE OF MT. VJffiR^OX. 



Mrs. Lvc-x C. Mayo has been appointed one of 
the lady managers of the "Mt. Vernon Ladies' 
Association of the Union," for the purchase of 
the estate pf Washington, and is prepared to 
receive contributions for this purpose. " The 
payment of one dollar constitutes any person a 
member of this Association, and the payment of 
the further sum of one dollar, on or before the 
22d of February, in any year, shall entitle a 
member to attend and yqte at tb^e annual Asso 
ciation of that year/' 

Subscriptions in small sums from children will 
be gladly accepted, 

Address JiUCT C, MATQ, No. 30 Hudson st. 
Albany. 

—The rescue of Mount Vernon from tho rapa- 
cious hand which now holds it, and its restora- 
tion to the beauty and the care which once con- 
trolled it, and which should characterize the 
resting place of the immortal "Washington, is 
an object which must commend itself to the pat- 
riotism of every true lover of his country. Beau- 
ty and taste are nowhere more appropriate than 
at the resting place of the dead; and the former 
home and the grave of Washington should not 
at any cost be left in hands w^ere it is inflicting 
a stain upon the good name o* America both at 
home and abroad No moiiunient can be more 
appropriate to the memory of the departed Chief- 
tain and Sage to whom we owe so much, than 
the careful preservation of his former home, and 
of the sacred tomb where his ashes repose. To 
the credit of our country, we ivr. 8t l k e of tne 
"Mount Vernon Ladies 1 Association" will re- 
ceive a hearty response, and that Albany, never 
behind other communities in her liberality, will 
do her share towards the consummation oi so 
honorable and patriotic an undertaking. 



News Summary. 



Ritchie have declined the public demonstratiot 
of a matinee or soiree, which several papo'm 
have announced they were to be complimented 
by their literary friends. 

—Mr. Simeon Draper/of New York, nearly 
lost his life some days since by an explosion of 
gas in the basement of his counting room.— 
His eye-brows, whiskers, and the fur on his hat 
were all singed, and has escape very narrow. 

—An actress. Alice Gray, tried to play " Lady 
Teazle" at the Buffalo Theatre,some days since, 
but was hissed from the stage; cause not stated. 
Alice tried next to make an appeal to the gal- 
lant public, but they wouldn't hear her. So the 
play came to an untimely end. 

—A Democratic paper states that "E. DTMot, 
gan's vascillating course in not voting while ia 
the Senate, gave rise to the initials E. D. M., 
which stood for Everlastingly Dodging Morgan/ * 

if bifiS Jc FusiottiUll&t I OWlW 

The N. T. Daily Advertiser, formerly Ameri- 
can, takes down its colors and runs up Morgan. 

The Palladium, Franklin Co., does likewise.— 
Dropping its Americanism and putting on Re- 
publicanism, it says:— 

We do not desire to disguise our regrets at 
the failure of the Republican and American 
State Conventions to unite on a ticket that might 
have been supported by all opposed to the pres- 
ent miserable and corrupt Administration. • 
These Conventious haviug, in the outset, agreed 
upon a basis of union, presented in the form of 
Resolutions, which met the approbation. pf botft 
bodies, it seems, to us, the height of folly to" have 
divided on the question of men. 



Judge Johnson, of the Sixth Judicial District, 
has refused Ira Stout a stay of proceedings in order 
to apply fpr a new trial. He is to be hung on the 
22d 9f October- 

---They are a very polite sgf of chaps over in 
Canada— especially during an eleetitn. Mr. £em- 
mon, editor of the Bratford Courier, was attacked 
by two brothers, named McBride, a few days ago, 
and beaten with a cowhide, for some political of- 
fence. The assailants were arrested and fined heav- 
ily for the act. 

—The New Albany (Ind.) Journal of Thursday 
states that there is much excitement in that £ity, in 
relation tp the ajieged delinquencies of the Rev. 
Mr. Admire, pastor of Koberts* Chapel. In conse- 
quence of his "too devoted attention to Miss Green, 
a member of his flock, her father had given him a 
horspwhipmn^jn which . procedure he ws.s iuatitied. 



HOME MATTERS, 

I£|F* None ean observe the thin and pale chil- 
dren who now occupy desks at our school rooms,, 
without shuddering at the degeneracy of our 
scholars, from those who with robust forms and 
ruddy countenances, used to occupy the country 
school houses in their earlier days. ; . w bm ^- 

The causes of tfeis degeneracy are obvious to 
all who will reflect upon the subject. Now-*, 
days, especially in our cities, bcth men and wo- 
men lead an almost unbroken sedentary life. 
City employments require this in a large propor- 
tion of the male sex, and the females engaged 
in stores and at work at tradeg are also confined 
to sedentary occupations. Besides, (a^ipn de- 
mands Jat those worsen wh,o are no£ obliged to, 
work for a living shall be able to boast that they 
do no house > ork, an4 sillier still, tbjey must 
train up their dau^ter? in indolenoe for fear, if 
they do otherwise, $eir claims to being consid- 
ered ladies will be jeopardized^! aa w 

Thus a generation of foO'dsh mothers has pro" 
duced a generation of useless daughters, and it 
is not difficult to predict what it* effect of such 
training upon *^e next generation will be. The 
criterion of fashion, at the preset ©pmen^s 
seems to be,— {he, incapacity qf being useful to 
anybqdody or to one's self; and judged \W lnll} 
criterion, no one will deny that in this gener* 
tion there are vast numbers of fashionable peo- , 
pie, of both sexes. But the incapacity for use- 
fulness is not the only characteristic of this £4ttL 



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THE EAS 

We aro glad to be r " 
8VITH will speak I ' 

MKM'g ASSOCIATK 

State street, on MC 
o'aloek, p. M . 

He will also visit 
er towns the same j 
October Sth, p f 
6th, 2r 

7th, a 

8th, T 
hope the friem" a 
dom will take pains 1 ,u 
the time and place J Vl 

▼ide the largest and , e, 
them. • 

STATE TEMI 

At a State Temp e( .- 
tion held at Sjraeus ia r- 
weromade: aa . 
Gbbbit SiriTH.fohice 
«ii>NBr A. BEEBJhusr 

Freedom and Prohibi anL a 
* «I1 anti-slavery anattecn ( 

The undersigned v" ead} " 
eo^tiu-e S ofCattaraug^ ea - ! 
aggrieved thuf unretf< 



of th ' 



^grieved that the th 

State promise the P e 

tbe terrible ravages era i;t 

bo protection f JOm a > viti 

assault* of the Fugit^ ° 

^ake the State of ]&? * 

*°&ng, but a sla m-^ 8 S 

neglect to extend the hah 

ftllow-dtiaens, who at 3 vv0 " 

J ae property qual fi C a iBSUi,e " 

seem to plaeoj)^^ / tbe ;t 

Morality and the 2/gt e indci 
vueour^^.^.^, 

at iillington, on the me thc ; 
at 1 o'clock, p. 3f> ^e^ns , 

J S Coleman Qal co: v 
A. K Avery 
^ 2»Cran« 0B 
' ^ a p th am Mixer 
g B Dawley 

' T,i. Partr idge 
i JfBilC _ 
Allain Bilhw 



ving du 

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CB Ailen 

fe^bf 8 ^ 
^°Henr? 
Hiram Teri rv 

^ OiversSn 
James Wiii aoa 
Gideon WUaon 

flJobJe 



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gorged her dose by running- her finger down her 
^throat, but the other was unable to do so, and 
will, in all probability, die in a day or two — 
f r poisoned by corrosive subliment. 
' 1 —The Saugerties Telegraph states that Rich- 
ej :,;d Dubois, of Glasco, in that town, who is nat- 
a ,ir ally of a degraded and quarrelsome disposi. 
Ltft> a > got deranged in mind one day last week by 
the too frequent usa of liquor, and attempted 
to kill his wife by shooting her with a gun. The 
gun was loaded with shot, the bulk of which 
(| took effect upon the hip. Dubois is now being 
provided for in the Kingston jail. The wife is 
considerably injured, but is considered out of 
J danger.. 

— The constitutionality of the Maine Liquor 
Law is to be tested in the U. 8. Court. Some 
four years ago Constable D. Nott attached a 
qaantity of liquor in the store of David Clark 
in Hartford, Ct., under the Maine Law, and that 
attachment has been followed by several trials 
in the Hartford Courts, in which the juries failed 
to ajgree. A. L. Clark, son of David, and doing 
business in New York, claimed the liquor, and 
contested the suits. They now sue the consta- 
ble in the UnitedfStates Court, for illegally seiz- 
ing their liquor, and the constitutionality of the 
Maine Law will be tried in the above C<j«f!.~- 
The Clarkg claim damages to th.e_ suaosnt of ten 
thousand dollars. 



Political. 

—The Democrats of Erie County have nomi- 
nated Israel T. Hatch] for Congress; Levi J. 
Ham for Senator, and James Wadsworth for 
Sheriff. It will be remembered that Mr. Wads- 
worth resigned his seat in the Senate some time 
3ince which was said to have been done for the 
mrpose of securing thi§ namination. 

— F. W. ^eliixgg, the celebrated temperance 
lecturer, has been nominated for Congress in 
one of the Michigan districts. 

—There is a rumor among political menuthat 
Fernando Wood's name is mention in connec- 
tion with the Governorship of Nebraska, in 
place of Col. Richardson, who sympathising with 
his friend Douglas, is looking to his old home 
in Illinois, 



HOME MATTERS. 

Season for Contemplation. 

No thoughtful mind can contemplate or reHeet 
on these words of truth and soberness, u The 
summer is ended," without feelings of sadness. 
Meditations iipcm. s'^oh words of import will stir 
the deep ahrings of emotion, which lie far be- 
neath the surface of the mind's ordinary themes 
of thought. It is no matter how cheerful one 
may really be by nature and education, yet even 
such will now betray feelings of sorrow. 

The beautiful flowers that blossomed every- 
where over hill and dale, upon the mountain side 
and in the deep vale, have faded and perished^ 
leaving, however, behind the hopeful germj, o/ a 
future life. The summer birds tb«a$ naa.de every 
hedge, orchard, groje § t nd woodside, not except- 
ing even th? deep and almost impenetrable for- 
est, vocal with their varied and tuneful songs , 
Vv. '^^»J^«^~afl#ithern homes, to gladden 



This is a beautiful world whose denizens w 
are, notwithstanding sin and sorrow a*d sighinj 
have entered it, for grace doth sq mueh mon 
abound. There is so much more occasion fa 
joy, than sadness, that tho mingling of the lat 
ter rather serves to sweeten the former. It it 
said, had it not been for the introduction of sin 
into the world, the minor key of music would 
never have been heard. So of the revolving sea- 
sons; were it not for autumn and winter, spring 
and summer would lose half their charms. So 
let each successive season be improved, that we 
may ever be able to say it has been the pleasant- 
est and happiest ever enjoyed. Then will life; 
be crowned with joy and rejoicing. 



The Competing Engines— Thb Pkizes.-t 
The following is a list of the competing engines, 
with their several scores, as reported by and de- 
cided upon by the Judges : 

FIRST CLASS. 



l.U 


,...107 feet. 


2 


1IR . 


a iia « 


4 


... 131 " . 






6.... 


....141 ; < 


7.... 


149 " ; 


8.... 


....13i >i 


9..., 


....J«& " 


10 




u. . . . 


....167 " . 


12. . . . 


....120 " . 



31 of New York. 

6 of Detroit. 

3 of Springfield 
5 of Utioa. 

7 of Troy. 
2 of Stamfords 

4 of Lai. s na&urgii, 

2 of Lee, fllsafl. 

3 of Brookiyu. 

5 of Buffalo. 
SofLittleFalta. 

The First Prize was awarded to No. 3 of Brook* 

lyn, and the Second to No. 2 of Stamford. 

SECOND CLASS. 

..No. 5 cf Newark. 

5 of Brooklyn, 

8 ot Martfbrd. 
1 of West Troy. 
1 of Waterford. 
3 of Green' ush. 

1 of Whitehall. 

2 of Waterford, 

1 of Lee, Mass, 

5 of Norwich, Ct 

6 of Troy. 
15 of New York, 

8 of Newark. 
10 of Troy, 
a of New York. 

2 of Yonkers. 
1 of Wifliamsburgfeu 



1 


....134 feet. 


2 


ISfi " 


3 142 « . 


4. . ., 


....150 " . 


5 


....157 " . 


6. , 


....138 " . 


7 


Ififl «' : 




8 ..1ST « 






11. 


....148 " . 


12.... 


....147 " . 


18. . . , 


....000 " . 


14 








15, ., 


....131 " , 


IT... 


....109 " 







The first second elass prize was awarded to- 
the Whitehall engine ; and the second to No. 2^ 
of Waterford. 

THIRD CLASS. 

L. ...... 142 feet No. 1 of Troy. 

8 154 "...=..„. 5ofNewHaven. 

8 141 " 7 of Providence. 

4 144 " 1 of Morrissiana* 

5 156 " 18 of New York. 

ti 154 « 28 of New York, / 

The first third class prize was awarded t& So, 

18 of New York. For the second there was a 

tie between No. 28 of New York, and No. 5 of 

New Haven. A second trial was had by these 

contestants, on which occasion the former threw 

136 feet, and the latter 129 feet; so No 28 carried 

off the prisa. 



gp^The Dudley Observatory seems to be 
becoming more and more entangled by the (f! 
pute and disputants. Mrs. Dudley, in a le 
to Mr. Olcott, threatens to revoke her $50, 
donation. A bill of Complaint is threate 
against Oloott before the Courts. The Ti 
tees, too, are threatening with personal liabtl 



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yaa raoeive, and sead mo u 
many i»ew names ai you o^i 
Ifreir poat office address. 

I deairato add ta aur iiat, 
paas away, 1&,0W tab«crib«r- 

iHreet to ma. '23 Baavar atrg" 01 M 
made I 

I'uW»en«r of The id other> 
«SaRlT SMITH IN ©thig u\ 
TAB KASTKRPW Convet 

u of Sei 

are glad to be ablo to 
SMITH will *peak itt AiAi go ? 

Association Hal 
State street, oa MONDAY th0 gta 
o'oloak, t. m. ^threaoh 
Ha will als© yisit New Y W; 
ttttwaa the same week, a ty __ t b e , 
Oetotoer 5th, Poatrhke- 
6th, New Y»]' B ' 
7th, Brooklr 
Stk, Troy, thairma, 

W© ho^aa th« friends of T See'y. 

4dm will tak« ffdn* to ffir« 

the tima ajad plaea of tke^ion. 

▼ide the largest aad naost «ag an € 

$h«m. r goveri 

' — 1 m ind ea 

ST ATS yffiMPSRA anyentic 
At * State T4XBP«ranee politic 

tien bald at Syraeuttf. the ^ree-Lo- 

were made: 
Ohssit Smith, for Convention 
jSidkbt A. Bbbks, for L n nas J u 
Johw G. HAMtKaTOJr., Its ob ^ e 

Bioner. 

Silas T. Filss, for 8tat? Yk ' 1 1 

Ivfjry man on the abo leno « ne ; 

Freedom and Prohibition, a t0 be 

«f all aati-slaTery and TomP ommuf 
.unces ti 

PffiOPliS'S cow f the Co ' 

Th% aadersigaed vofiers npowne; 
«»KGtidi of Cattaraugus an^dore^ai 
aggmrod that «ho three Po pa rty, i 
34a*e promiae the People ntprocurii 
, , i the coi 

•she terrible ravages of th^ ient t0 t! 

mm protection fiona the w< 
Aitanlts of the Fogitiro Sls 
aaake the State of New t* 

folding, but a sLA.vn-HtmTi LouJsvii 
*ogkct to extend the ElectiHe has 
Sellow-citwteDs, who are no wwybody 
*fee property qualification, a? r0(itlce 
Mom lo place prssmU amilib on a fe 
Morality and the Sights of ™graph 
-vile oar fellow-citizens to raj* Se " at 
«t KUington, on the 13th {^th&n tl 
assing f 

E 
H 

Pr with tl 
Tiinois ca 
St stnmp 
Tl the Vi( 
1^ go the) 
Mhem, ai 
Fintinuall 
^;he butt! 
)i 
(> 



«t 1 o'clock, r. u. 

E R Coleman 
A R Avery 
Wm Cranston 
J&atham Mixer 
B B Dawley 
M J Partridge 
J W Billing* 
Allain Billings 
M D Bariingaae 
D B Dorset 
S T Skinner 
Jeremiah Warner 



meanness or endeavoring to Vamp up coalitions 
with factions with whom they could not even 
confer without a sacrifice of the principles they 
had blazoned forth on their political birth— 
when they, who draw a great element of their 
strength from the ranks of adopted citizens, are 
ready to shake hands with the deadliest enemies 
of those citizens, the sworn foes of freedom of 
conscience, for the purpose of watering their 
charges in the Potomac, or stabling them at Al- 
bany—when others, denying the inscription so 
long displayed on their "banner, do homage to 
civil and religious freedom by their professions, 
but mock it by their official" acts, and exhaust 
the'store-houae of Federal pabulum to feed the 
enemies of the principles and men they repre- 
sent—it is criminal for a citizen to tie his faith 
with any but a running knot to any party what- 
soever. Our adopted fellow-eitizens must calmly 
and seriously judge for themselves. If the eon- 
tending parties eontain each a portion of evil, 
they must choose that which contains the least. 
Their duty as eitizens forbids inactivity, and a 
policy of "abstentation, while imbecile in itself, 
would, besides, accomplish the very defiireof the 
anti-Liberal or Dark-Lantern party. The citizen 
who pursues it is like the man who, because he 
has been slighted by an old acquaintance, instead 
of making common cause with him, allows him 
to be despatched by their mutual foe, and thus 
leaves himself at the mercy of an implacable 
enemy. Let them ask not who offers the most 
patronage, but who gives the most guarantees of 
civil and religious liberty, and record their votes 
according to their conscience. 



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News Summary* 

—The N. Y. Times says the bills for the cable 
celebration foot up twenty thousand dollars.— 
The leading item of expenditure is the grand 
dinner given at the Metropolitan Hotel, each 
guest being charged ten dollars per head. The 
livery bills for carrirges driven in the procession, 
present a mammoth array of charges, nearly as 
long as the procession itself. 

—A company has been formed among the 
merchants of Boston, for the purpose of engag. 
ing in the whale fishery in the North Pacific, by 
means of small vessels, of from one to two nun 
dred tons burthen. The leader of the project is 
Mr. James S. Swan, who will leave on the steam- 
er of the 90th of October, for Port Townsend. 

—No less than seventeen divorce cases, four- 
teen of which ar3 from other States, will etme 
up at the next term of the Tippecanoe (Ind.) 
Circuit Court. 

—A bold robbery of the Bank of Upper Can- 
ada was committed on Saturday last. The Cus- 
tom House messenger was sent to deposit $4000 
in the bank, and atfer the money had been 
counted it was abstracted from the counter by 
some unknown person. There is no clue to the 
robber. 

—The Police Commissioners met again yes- 
terday, to deside upon the case of Superintend- 
ent Tallmadge. They passed two resolutions, 
one of which censures Gen. Tallmadge for not 
sending men to Quarantine on the morning of 
the 2d of September; the other resciads their 
former resolution of suspension, and reinstates 
the Superintendent in his office. 



■ . . -« «' J- wiL ~.i.Jll'W.i"L*U ■ 

the public. 

It seems, however, that the course 
pursued by this Bank, though enti 
tory to all parties, does not suit tt 
Metropolitan Bank in New York 
which appoars to claim the ri & 
with the management of cour to 
regulate their rules of redem 

The Bank of Saratoga S' plied! 
With the law requiring it to fining 
agent in New York, Albe \ there 

to redeem its notes at | c iscoisnt. 
It has also always rede at par at 

its own counter, and bound to 

redeem them elsewhe^ 

The Metropolitan Bank nu . npts to force 
it to redeem its notes also at New fork at I per 
cent discount, and in order to bring its otticers 
into this arrangement, it has been engaged for 
several months in hoarding the notes of the re- 
cusant bank, intending to "make an example of 
it." 

It would be quite desirable that the country 
banking interest should endeavor to ascertain 
through the next Legislature whether the Me- 
tropolitan Bank has any right to usurp legislaj 
tive authority, and to use its privileges of organ; 
zation in a warfare upon the currency of this 
State. 

The Assorting House in Albany fortunately 
having the confidence and cooperation of the. 
Country Banks, has so far diminished the Coun- 
try Bank Note receipts of the Metropolitan thafc 
the power of accumulation is a slow one, par- 
haps about two or three hundred dollars a day, 
and the Bank of Satatoga Springs is fortunate- 
ly prepared to redeem its whole circulation on 
demand, and the threats of the Metropolitan in- 
timidate nobody. 

The only harm done by this New York inter- 
ference is, that it deprives the Bank of the priv- 
ilege of paying out its own notes, and our com- 
munity of the use of a local currency known to 
it, and possessing its confidence. 



Saturday Night! 

What blessed things are Saturday nights, and 
what would the world do without them? — those 



Double GlopemcHt-Two Jtvoih&m Run 
Away with Two Sinters* 

. From the Cleveland Plaindealer, $ept. 29. 

Mr. Lloyd, a highly respectable farmer ia 
Wicklifle, arrived in this city last evening in ah\ 
excited state of mind. He sought out Marshal 
Gallagher, and told him that his two daughters 
had eloped on Monday night with two hired 
men, brothers,andlnamed respectively Chauncey 
Lewis and Watson Lewis. Mr. Lloyd said ho 
thought they were in this city. The Marshal 
put on his seven league boots and commenced 
walking rapidly around the city. He found thje 
enterprising parties at last at the Franklin House 
on Pearl street. Watson Lewis had already 
married one of the sisters and retired for the 
night. Chauncey Lewis was making arrange- 
ments to marry the other sister, when the Mar- 
shal appeared and took him and his intended 4g.> 
the police station. Locking Chauncey Lewi* ap* 
in the watchhouse, Mr. Lloyd took his daughter 
to the Commercial House and locked her up im 
a room. 

Mr. Loyd, in addition to being an extensive* 
and flourishing farmer, keeps a tavern in Wick- 
liffe, which is very favorably known through 
this section. Mr. L. owns Bome 450 acres of 
land in Wickliffe and is quite wealthy. Hi® 
daughters are named Mary and Laura. Mary 
is about twenty years old, and Laura about six? 
teen. They are splendid looking girls, and are 
fashionably and richly dressed. They are bo'.h 
well educated, having enjoyed superior ou - 
tages in this respect. 

The Lewis brothers are uncouth, unec 
and over grown specimens of humanity, a 
neither read nor write. They hired ant 
Lloyd some six months ago. He paM \ 
the eldest one, $13. and Chauncey $18 -a i 
Chauncey Lewis, the young man wito* did 
married and who passed the nighs in. the 



